Notes Winter 2008

WINTER 2008 FOR ALUMNI, PARENTS AND FRIENDS OF THE EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC

NOTESVolume 26, Number 1Winter 2008

EditorDavid Raymond

Contributing writersRuth CahnDouglas LowryMarie Rolf

Contributing photographersRichard BakerSteve BoernerKurt BrownellPo Yao ChenGelfand-Piper PhotographyJanet Robbins

Photography coordinatorKaren Ver Steeg

DesignSteve Boerner Typography & DesignCarrie Principé

Published twice a year by the Office of Communications, Eastman School of Music, 26 Gibbs Street, Rochester, NY, 14604, (585) [email protected]

FROM THE DEAN

“Making Music Matter”

Since arriving from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music on August 1, 2007, I have had the good fortune of immersing myself in Eastman’s rich history, culture and resonance. Eastman arrived at this elevation with a strong sense of its own mission, an abiding aspiration for excellence, and an abundant ethos of leadership. Its faculty and students are motivated and in-spiring; its supporters, most particularly its alumni, are devoted, eager to hear about the school’s next chapters, and committed to perpetuating an Eastman agenda that will shape and inspire our musical culture well into the future.

As you will read in the following pages, the Eastman Theatre Renovation and Enhancement Project is well underway. It will, upon completion, transform our

performing and teaching capabilities, helping to fulfill George Eastman’s dream. We have also been engaged in authoring our strategic plan for Eastman’s future, entitled Empowering the Eastman Advantage, critically examining Eastman’s strengths and its position in the domain of internationally renowned music schools. We believe the Eastman experience is unique because it in-fuses traditional musical values with the fresh energy of innovation, setting us apart from many of our excel-lent peers. Most importantly, though, we are defining Eastman’s leadership role in creating the music school of the future. I think it is fair to say that at no time in history have we experienced such a breathtaking trans-formation in music content, presentation, and connec-

tivity. Eastman must not only lead this conversation, but translate our insights into creating a future that is not only of high artistic content, but music that establishes a meaningful and vibrant human connection between composers, performers, scholars and audience.

Among many of Eastman’s assets are its strong partnerships, some of which include the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the George Eastman House, and, of course, the University of Rochester. Our ever-enlivening relationship with the River Campus will, we believe, vitalize our institutional possibilities.

I am honored to be Eastman’s sixth dean, and equally excited about getting to know the Eastman family. This is a culture bound by exemplary and adventure-some teaching, creativity, and scholarship. Its ethos is founded on two simple tenets. First, that teaching matters when it transforms the student; second, that music matters when it transforms the listener. Our driving Eastman ambition, therefore, is to make music matter.

Join us.

Douglas LowryDean

PHOTOGRAPH BY GELFAND-PIPER PHOTOGRAPHY (MUSIC STANDS)

10% Total Recovered Fiber100% Post-Consumer Fiber

Douglas Lowry

INSIDE

FEATURES

5 Eastman turns up the heatEastman’s newest dean on figuring out where we’ve been and where we’re headed

7 The alchemy of the museIn his inaugural address, Dean Douglas Lowry muses on how to make music matter

12 90 years in the making George Eastman dreamed big in 1921, and his dream house will be complete in 2010

2 COMING EVENTS

3 LETTERS

14 SCHOOL NEWS

22 ALUMNI NOTES

25 EASTMAN ALUMNI ON CD

27 EASTMAN ALUMNI ON DVD

28 IN MEMORIAM

32 SHOWING OFF

34 FACULTY NOTES

35 EASTMAN FACULTY ON CD

36 STUDENT NOTES

ON THE COVER: Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon’s music inspired the latest Garth Fagan dance piece, EDGE/JOY, first

performed in Rochester and in New York this fall.

ON THE INTERNET: More news about the Eastman School of Music,

including the full text of Notes and expanded alumni information,

can be found online at www.esm.rochester.edu.

ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING BY ROBERT MACON; RICHARD BAKER (LOWRY); LOS ANGELES OPERA (MCDONALD AND GRIFFEY); GELFAND-PIPER PHOTOGRAPHY (EASTMAN OPERA)

12A THEATRE AND SCHOOL

REBORN: EASTMAN’S BIG NEW

PLANS FOR RENOVATION

7EASTMAN’S FIRST

21ST-CENTURY DEAN HAS

A 21ST-CENTURY MESSAGE

27EASTMAN ALUMS ARE HEARD

aNd SEEN ON CDS AND DVDS

17EASTMAN OPERA

THEATRE SENDS

IN THE SONDHEIM

The University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music was named “Hottest Music School,” and one of the 25 hottest schools in America, in the 2008 Kaplan/Newsweek “How to Get Into College Guide.” Eastman earned this distinction for offering:

• The very best musical and academic training

• Innovative institutes and trendsetting entrepreneurial programs

• A warm and supportive musical community

in the 2008 Kaplan/Newsweek “How to Get Into College Guide”

“ Eastman students are challenged to make their superb music and scholarship matter.”

— Dean Douglas Lowry

Notes_HOT25_ad.indd 1 2/12/08 1:47:15 PM

2 Eastman Notes | Winter 2008

Coming Events

Yehudi Wyner

February 12–March 7, 2008Pulitzer Prize–winning composer • Yehudi Wyner, Howard Hanson Visiting Professor of Composition

March 24–28, 2008Women in Music Festival 2008 • With composer-in-residence Nancy Van de Vate

April 3–6, 2008Eastman Opera Theatre • Lehár: The Merry Widow

June 29–August 7, 2008Summer at Eastman 2008 • Alumni discount! New offerings include: Plays Well with Others (accompanying course), alternative Styles: Opening Musical Worlds (music education), and more! Visit www.esm.rochester.edu/summer

September 26–28, 2008David Oistrakh Festival • Centenary tribute to the great Russian violinist

October 16–20, 2008EROI Festival 2008 • Inauguration of the Craighead-Saunders Organ at Christ Church

October 17–19, 2008Eastman Weekend/Meliora • Weekend 2008

Winter 2008 | Eastman Notes 3

LETTERS

That 70s showOur Chuck Mangione tribute mystery photo in the summer 2007 Notes got an excellent (and, we assume, mostly accurate) response. We’ve printed the letters in the order we re-ceived them; if you read carefully, you’ll notice some discrepancies in people’s memories, but we’ve printed everyone “as is” (and reprinted the photo, for your own student-spotting).

Wow, your mystery photo in the sum-mer Notes took me back a few years, about 35 to 36 years. This photo was taken in the Dining Hall of the Prince Street campus in either the fall of 1971 or the spring of 1972, and I believe that it was the last time that we had to dress up for such an event. I know, because I remember being there. Chuck Mangione played, as did a number of Eastman people. I can’t remember most of the names in the photo, but do recognize Candace Barnowski (soprano) in the top left, and Audrey Morrison (trombone) just in front of her. I don’t remember the name of the guy in front of her but I think he played clarinet. In the center in the tie is Madison Pruitt, organist, and I think that’s Jim Pugh, trombone, bottom left.

Dennis Maxfield (bm ’75, mm ’78)Canandaigua, NY

Finally … a picture I recognize. Your mystery picture was taken at the Christmas Dance of 1971. It was held in the Dining Hall and Munroe Lounge (of the old residence hall). You are correct: Chuck Mangione and his quartet were there … just on a break. The photo (and others of the party) are in

the 1971Ω72 yearbook. Sorry, not much help on names, but I was there.

Alane Schreier Gruber (bm ’74)Washington, NJ

I have a hard time believing that a photo from only 36 years ago could be a mystery photo, but time has passed quickly. The photo was taken on December 6, 1971, at the holiday dance in the main dining hall of the Eastman dorm. It also appears in the 1971Ω72 Score.

With the help of Mike Tarentino (bm ’75), I have been able to identify some of the students. The front row is Jim Shake (’74), Rhonni Brocks (’75), back to camera and dark suit, Kurt Studier (’75), and back to camera, lighter suit, Mike Tarentino. Across the back are Mary Beth Vandura (’75), Audrey Morrison (’75), Les Hicken (’75), Pete Grenier (’74), James Alan Denike (’74), Penny Currier (’75), and Dan McCooey (’75). The band playing for the dance was Chuck Mangione, Gerry Niewood, Pat Labarbera, and Steve Gadd.

Ernie Seeman (bm ’75)Scotch Plains, NJ

I’m sure that the “mystery photo” on page 3 of your Summer 2007 issue will not remain a mystery for long. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I had seen it before. Sure enough, that photo is part of a two-page spread titled “Christmas Dance: December 6, 1971,” in the somewhat dark publication Eastman School

of Music 50th Anniversary Year (1971Ω1972). The spread includes other photos of attend-ees and Chuck Mangione’s quartet, which included Gerry Niewood on saxes, Ron Davis on drums, and a bass player who is only seen from the back (if this incarnation of his quartet was the same as on his 1972 Mercury release The Chuck Mangione Quartet, the bass player is Joel Di Bartolo, but I can’t tell from the photos). I remember attending the party, which was held in the dining hall of the Prince Street men’s dorm. The groovy dancers in your photo include Jim Shake (trombone, ’74) and Rhonni Brocks (violin, ’75) at left foreground. Also in the photo are Les Hicken (clarinet, ’75), Audrey Morrison (trombone, ’75), Al Denike (bassoon, ’74), and I believe it is Kurt Studier (oboe, ’75) with his black tuxedoed back to us. I’m sure others will contribute their identifications as soon as they see the photo. Good luck and good memories.

Jim Daniels (bass trombone, ’75)Stroudsburg, PA

The event was the Christmas Party in the Dining Room of the University Avenue dorms on December 6, 1971 (page 24Ω25 in the 1971Ω72 yearbook). Dean [Flora] Burton was even there! The gentleman with the im-pressive moustache I believe is Jim Hoskins (’74), but not sure who he is dancing with. Between them are a couple of familiar faces, at least to me. One is Leslie Hicken (’75) and the other is Audrey Morrison (’75). I think I too might be hiding somewhere in that shot.

Alan Denike (bm ’74)Regina, SK, Canada

The mystery photo in the Summer 2007 issue of Notes was taken at the Christmas Dance held at the Prince Street dorms on December 6, 1971. This picture (along with four others) appears on pages 24Ω25 of the 1971Ω72 Eastman Yearbook (50th Anniversary Year). I am the fellow at the left foreground with the striped slacks. I was dancing with Rhonni Brocks (now Rhonni Hallman) ’75. Chuck Mangione’s quartet provided the music for that dance. The woman to my left with her back turned may

Dancing the night away with Chuck Mangione, Christmas 1971

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY EASTMAN ARCHIVES

LETTERS

be Vicki Snyder ’74 (thanks to help from Bob Neusatz ’75).

After graduating and then receiving an MBA in Finance, I have been working as a pension and health care consulting actu-ary in Central New York. I am a member (five years now) of a national professional committee advising Congress and other regulators regarding multi-employer pen-sion plans (the A.F. of M. plan is a multi-employer plan).

I have kept up on the music performance side by playing trombone and percussion for the last four years in the Syracuse University Brass Ensemble, a 30+-member comprised of SU faculty and other adult musicians in the area. The ensemble (through the SU School of Liberal Arts) recently commissioned a piece by Robert Ward ’39 to play at the 2008 dedication of SU’s new Life Sciences build-ing. I was recently named to the Ensemble’s board of directors.

I occasionally see Ernie Muzquiz (mm ’71) and Ed Castilano (bm ’76) at Syracuse Symphony events.

James C. Shake, Jr. (bm ’74)Marcellus, NY

I think the young lady whose head is show-ing is Audrey Morrison, my trombone stu-dent from Mamaroneck, NY. Chuck and I were good friends at Eastman. Vince Lenti [whose photo also appeared in this issue’s

“School News”] was a dorm student advisor when I was a freshman in 1958.

Perry Martin (bm ’62)Lake Worth, FL

Memories of Hendl and HansonI always enjoy reading Notes, but I don’t see many references about the early ’30s, even in the obituaries. I wonder if I may be the last member of the class of ’32. I wasn’t a few years back. My wife, formerly Alma Lissow, died in 2003 at the age of 98. She had a per-formance bm in piano (’32), a bm in organ (’33), and we both got our mm in composi-tion in ’34, all from Eastman. I got my PhD from Columbia in ’52, and she her DSacM from Union Theological Seminary in ’60.

My first meeting with Dr. Hanson was at Interlochen in the summer of 1931. Alma’s first acquaintance was essen-tially Hanson’s arrival at Eastman. I was able to rehearse and play in all his American Composers Concerts in the seasons from fall 1931 through spring 1935. We both attended the only class he taught—a course in Modern Harmony—and he supervised our orchestral compositions for the Master’s theses. He conducted Alma’s dissertation, a piano concerto, but when it came to mine, a tone poem for small chorus, or-

chestra, and organ titled The Word Eternal, he asked me to conduct with the Roch- ester Civic Orchestra and a chorus I had trained. (I believe I was the first person to conduct the Civic.)

We were both very fond of Dr. Hanson and saw him occasionally during my years at Juilliard and teaching at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Finally when we were on a visit with Alma’s parents in Spencerport, we saw Dr. Hanson in the hos-pital shortly before he passed away.

Paul Oncley (bm ’32, mm ’34)Oberlin, OH

Thank you for the tribute to conductor Walter Hendl. It was my privilege and plea-sure to perform for him as principal percus-sionist in the Eastman Philharmonia, and as a percussionist in the Rochester Philharmonic. An example of his good work was conduct-ing a performance of a work by music theory professor Robert Gauldin. I also did cym-bals in a piano concerto, Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, and Shchedrin’s Carmen Ballet with Eastman grads John Beck, Bill Cahn, and Ruth Cahn. Bob Becker was part of a reading session of a Strauss tone poem.

These were some of the highlights of my career, and I thank the Eastman School for providing them.

Geary Larrick (dma ’70)Stevens Point, WI

A meeting with MenottiThe death of Gian Carlo Menotti early in 2007 reminded us that in the early 1980s, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer-librettist of The Medium, amahl and the Night Visitors, and many other operas wrote one of his rare instrumental works for an Eastman faculty member—a double bass concerto for James VanDemark (current professor of bass), who performed it with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic in the fall of 1983. The master of operatic drama provided some drama in producing this work: VanDemark recalls that Menotti delivered the score (incomplete) just six weeks before the sched-

uled premiere, and that when the remainder of the score arrived it was completely water-logged and had to be dried by hair dryers. Oddly for a unique work by such a famous composer, Menotti’s concerto is seldom per-formed, but VanDemark thinks it ought to be, calling it “lyrical, accessible, and light: a big, elegant divertissement.” (The concerto is published by G. Schirmer.)

Have you ever had an interesting encounter (pleasant or otherwise) in preparing a new piece by a famous composer? If you have, please write Notes and tell us about it!


Douglas Lowry, sixth Dean of the Eastman School of Music, delivered his first Convocation address to faculty, staff, and students in Kilbourn Hall on September 6, 2007.

W ell, this is one terribly exciting moment for us all. Faculty and students have come back from active, productive summers: Europe, the Far East, other music schools, Aspen, festivals, retreats.

For the new students in the room trying to get their bearings at the Eastman School, I feel your pain. I’m new, too, trying to know where I’m headed—if I’m on 390 as opposed to 490 as opposed to 590 (or whatever those num-bers are).

But we have some very exciting things to look forward to, especially now that we’re known as the “hottest school for music” in the land.

I know we’re pumped up with a cer-tain amount of civic pride. And justifi-ably so. We have banners and a ribbon on the web site. We’ve sent hundreds of letters to alums and supporters, and everyone in the Eastman family is jus-tifiably proud.

The legacy of the Eastman experience is not only unique. It’s deep, it’s rich, it’s studded with graduates who have gone out into the world and fashioned ground-break-ing performances, redefined music by carving new territory with their compositions, produced scholarship filled with penetrating insight about our music, transmitted their knowledge and excite-ment to legions of students hungry to learn how to play and hear and study and in turn transmit … music.

“Eastmanturns upthe heat”


Our faculty is one of the most distinguished in the world. To be sure, their artistic and scholarly gifts and accomplishments are formidable. But they possess this extra dimension: an undying need to excel at that greatest of art forms, the art of teaching. To the students in the room: our faculty’s goal is to inform you, inspire you, cajole you, question you, and, sometimes, yes, yank your chain. But our faculty members have entered into a compact: we will not allow ourselves to rest on our laurels. What distinguishes the Eastman faculty is its unsurpassed zeal for advancing our storied Eastman standards even higher. I think, frankly, this is central to the Eastman legacy: this passion to always get better, to get more vibrant, to instill in you, our students, an ethos of making your music matter, making your scholarship matter, making your teaching matter. This is so that we can ensure that our music has relevance and purpose, and a legitimate and worthwhile future.

This is a critical point. With initiatives like the Institute for Music Leadership, Eastman has staked a claim. We acknowledge that it’s not enough to simply learn our art. We—you—must learn how to tend the garden in which it lives.

Beyond the pronouncement, what does this mean? It means that in the next couple of months we will embark on an intense evalua-tion process in order to chart our future. In the institutional vernacu-lar, this is called strategic planning. But this will not be an exercise intended to serve the whims of administrators or faculty. It will be driven by our desire to look into the future on behalf of you, our stu-dents, the only reason we are here.

W e will use as a base our very strong platform: our program as it stands at Eastman. We will then delve into an exploration of not just what music is going to sound like in the future, but what it’s going to be

like in the future. By this I mean the ways and means that we may experience music down the road, the way we may study and examine music in the future, the way we may teach music in the future. This is crucial because virtually every segment of our culture is redefin-ing not only its message, but its medium.

Other art forms have endured and indeed prospered by this evolu-tion. Great theatre, for example, did not die with the invention of TV and film. It just spun off some new versions of itself. Movies did not die with the invasion of the Internet, or the invention of YouTube. YouTube just evolved some new contexts within which film could be experienced. These kinds of changes will have a profound effect on the music we compose, how and where we perform and experience it, how we analyze it, and how we teach it.

We now live in a world whose narrative theater includes lots of other elements. This is a message-intense world stimulated by the computer screen. Every time we sit mesmerized in front of that very screen, we enter through a fantasy-rich portal into the most visited theatrical stage the world has ever known: the Internet. The Internet will not, I believe, replace live music. But it’s our job to learn how to use it to inspire an urgent need for live music.

This multi-media dimension is really not new at all. Stravinsky himself remarked that some of his most inspiring compositional mo-

ments occurred when his music was spun inside the rich cocoon of narrative. What resulted? Not just some great ballet music, but great music in general: from Petrushka to The Firebird to The Rite of Spring. Wagner was the consummate multi-media artist, conceiving his own music dramas and writing his own libretti. Steve Reich has teamed up with his partner Beryl Korot to create a fusion of music and video experiences. Eastman grads themselves assemble creative teams of their fellow Eastman alums to design visual backdrops for music.

I would argue that throughout history, some of our finest music has come about because of synergies of visual, spiritual, and intellectual stimuli. The massive and imposing music for the religious service is an example. I think we’re in a time

when some genius will fuse these things together in new imagina-tive ways we never thought possible, maybe even an Eastman stu-dent. And, of course, music itself will cross-fertilize. Sometimes this happens in our own house. This fall, the Ying Quartet will team up with the Turtle Island Quartet to imagine yet another across-the-musical-border possibility.

I believe that reports of the demise of serious music are exagger-ated. But we must create new engagement possibilities for music with those legions of intelligent, curious, informed people that are missing out, or going elsewhere for their aesthetic inspiration. We must figure out a way to captivate them in a way that is steeped in the fundamental essence of great music, yet urgently means something for future generations. To be blunt, it’s this urgency that I think has been lost. Something tells me that the “serious music” profession has been a little asleep at the wheel. Put another way, we have not been courageous and passionate public advocates for our art form.

Eastman will also be vigorously pursuing ways we can connect, not just within the walls of Eastman, but with our community here and elsewhere, such as our many colleagues at the University of Rochester. We already have a number of collaborative initiatives with the River Campus that have stimulated the minds and spirits of many of our faculty and students. There is a wealth of inspiration that you, our students, can gain from meaningful interactions with that community. I know for a fact that those students are dying to connect with you. And you will be the beneficiary—many already are—of vital intellectual and social contact. Last time I checked, the biology major, the philosophy major, the English major, the music major, are all human beings with brains and intellects and pent-up feelings and unexpressed emotional complexes, all trying to gain some sense of this poem we call life.

The direct message: Eastman is our medium. And we want Eastman the medium to be a place where what we do—composing music, probing music, inquiring of its history, teaching it, making music—matters. This is, indeed, the Eastman advantage.

Which is precisely why today, Eastman turns up the heat.Thank you.

ON THE WEB Douglas Lowry’s convocation address is also available on the Eastman website: www.esm.rochester.edu/news/convocation_2007.php.

PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD BAKER

The music at Dean Lowry’s investiture ceremony included Debussy’s rarely sung Papillons, performed by soprano Kathryn Blomshield.


By Douglas Lowry

I think it’s fair to say that Eastman’s vaunted legacy has carved a defining swath through musical culture since its founding. For these achievements, Eastman has been blessed with considerable national and international acknowledgement.

Yet if the dynamics of global connectivity have taught us anything, it is that institutions must be nimble and ultra-creative in order to evolve productively, constantly re-imagining their goals and aspirations by looking at themselves through eyes other than their own.

The alchemyof the museIn his inaugural

address, Eastman’s newest dean muses on making music matter.


“We are the alchemists who must convert music into something meaningful,

something communal.”


So before we talk about the remarkable opportunities for growth before us here at Eastman, I’d like to share a couple of simple per-sonal thoughts about this mysterious thing we call music.

Truth told, we don’t really know what happens when streams of mu-sical sounds move through time and space and hit the radar dishes of our psyches. It defies explanation because explanations are verbal, and music is a non-verbal art form. So our attempts to do so remain highly speculative. Philosophers have tried. For example, Suzanne Langer once described music as an emotive analogue to experiences inside us. Some have even argued for music as a separate form of “intelligence.”

Others call music an energy impulse that has the power to excite in different ways, depending on how we’re hard-wired. Music can excite bodily movement through space, as in dance. It can activate humming or singing, invoke emotional states, present us with in-tensely intriguing sonic puzzles, accompany spiritual or aesthetic experiences, or simply serve as an intriguing and relaxing backdrop to drinks or dinner.

Music’s source is, according to the Greeks, the muse. The muse was one of nine Greek goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who presided over our arts. (Notice that Zeus appointed goddesses,

and not gods, to watch over us.) The word “muse” can be a verb, as in, “to think or meditate in silence.” But “muse” is also a noun, as in,

“an inspiration that motivates a poet, artist, or thinker.” Listen to that: an inspiration that motivates a poet, artist, or thinker.

Now alchemy was “a form of medieval chemistry and speculative philosophy that attempted to discover an elixir of life and a method for transmuting base metals into gold.” But it also refers to “any seem-ingly magical process of transmuting ordinary materials into some-thing of true merit.” A brilliant theatrical set designer I used to work with in Cincinnati, Paul Shortt, once said that he was really in the business of creating illusion through visual imagery. He went on to say that no matter what your art, you’re essentially doing the same thing, be you poet, painter, composer, or performer. Masks, illusions, alchemy, but deployed to tell some version of some truth, giving cre-dence to Oscar Wilde’s statement, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth.”

Hence, the alchemy of the muse.

A t Eastman, our métier is the work of the creative imagination, be it the composer, performer, scholar or teacher. And as for the Eastman School, I believe funda-mentally that the most powerful, provocative, inspira-

tional, and motivating impulse in any organization or human being

is the creative impulse. Correspondingly, the most effective organiza-tions, be they educational or artistic or business; the most effective and compelling stage plays, musicals, films, pieces of music, novels, poems … are those where the creative impulse is flying high.

Which brings me to one of Eastman’s brightest accomplishments: its adventuresome spirit of entrepreneurship, its creativity. Through innovative programs like the Institute for Music Leadership, students are afforded opportunities to explore alternative means for advanc-ing their music, to interact with major players in the field. But they also learn via metaphors from other art forms, like learning audition techniques from actors. This is another muse at work at Eastman: the muse of the musical entrepreneur.

Now we don’t define “entrepreneur” in the strictly “business” sense. Some in the arts are actually offended by use of this word

“entrepreneur.” Though business is certainly woven in, we use the purest and broadest definition: “a person who organizes and man-ages an enterprise … with considerable initiative.”

If I look through the roster of prominent Eastman alums—Ron Carter, Renée Fleming, Dominick Argento, Chuck Mangione, Mitch Miller, to name a few—it all began with, to be sure, a significant

gift of music. But what sets these artists apart is initiative. There’s something about these innovators, for they are people with initiative, a particularly restless, active, dissatisfied, intensely curious element that fuels their constant creativity.

And so, behavioral initiative is at the basis for our vision of what I call The Eastman Advantage.

Vision is, of course, moot without focus. Though we work in music, one of the most ambiguous of mediums, this does not mean we don’t have to focus as an institution. Frankly, this is no different for the musical poet, be it composer or performer. The poet W.H. Auden put this spin on it: “Great creative work is clear thinking about mixed feelings.” A great way to characterize the act of composing and mak-ing music, and of the tasks before us here at Eastman.

Focus is difficult, made even worse in this era of the intensely con-stant distraction. But focus is necessary. Igor Stravinsky, one of the music world’s most creative geniuses, wrote in his Poetics of Music,

“The creator’s function is to sift the elements he receives, for human activity must impose limits upon itself.” He goes on, “My freedom thus consists in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned myself … my freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action …”

Another way to say it might be, “An artist is most free when the limits are most severe.”

The word ‘muse’ can be a verb, as in, “to think or meditate in silence.” But it is also a noun, as in,

“an inspiration that motivates a poet, artist, or thinker.”



But vision doesn’t just require imagination and focus, it also re-quires urgency. And so I’m going to bring up a sensitive topic. I’ll kind of come in the back door on this one.

We are a goal-obsessed civilization, a mode that has accomplished some incredible things. Skyscrapers, advances in medicine, technol-ogy, space travel, the Eastman School of Music. But as the sages tell us, there’s a downside to every upside. The upside—some say the necessity—of living and breathing a goal-oriented philosophy, of ac-complishment, is that it motivates. Goals frame the argument. They give us something to work for, allow us to prove our mettle, enable our dreams to emerge and become real. They help us focus, because goals help us quantify accomplishment. They allow us to visualize an end-game.

However, here’s the flip-side. Once a goal is accomplished, how do we behave? Have we prepared ourselves for the next step in our pursuit of even higher excellence? Have we taken notice of our com-petitors? Has the game changed? Moreover, is the way we do what we do sufficient to move us to the next level?

I guess here’s the rub, the opportunity challenge that presents itself as a gentle warning to every organization seeking not only to sustain

elevation, but also aspiring to fly even higher. I’ll paraphrase from the title of Marshall Goldsmith’s book: “What got you here … may not get you there.”

For starters, we have to be wary of believing our own rhetoric. Secondly, I’ll suggest that our Eastman institu-tional behavior must now be adapted to a new, ever-more shifty marketplace. Yet I will also insist that it is Eastman’s

responsibility to create the market—that’s been our storied trade-mark—and to do this, we must not be averse to risk. Sometimes I sense that our risk aversion in academia is fortified by this habit of constantly conducting our work as if our peers are always standing at our shoulders. We are also driven by this mania for “benchmark-ing,” as if each action or non-action can’t be determined until we are sure that we know what our peer group is doing.

The good thing is that Eastman has had a track record for some revolution in that regard. But we must not be so bound to the legacy that we become chained to it. We must be courageous enough to fail. Winston Churchill, whose epic successes and failures drew upon him with equal force, said, “Success is maintaining your enthusiasm between failures.”

Toward that end, I am committed to a number of objectives, not the least of which is broadening our input, and not just broadening

input from the music world, but outside the music world as well. Because if we’re only listening to what the music world thinks is im-portant, we run the risk of listening to nothing save that which agrees with our own prejudices.

Which brings me to two other vitally important topics: diversity and engagement, which are inter-twined in my view.

The latter first. Let me posit something: every-thing is theater, theater is everything, including music. Great charac-ters in great plays, like great lines in great symphonies, must engage, and engage productively. Each character must tell their story in a way that is compelling and interesting, but also, the story has to mean something to the community—a rich and diverse community, not just “us.” I guess it’s what I’d call productive engagement, for this heightens urgency and excitement and also multiplies engage-ment. And it’s based on another quite simple precept: music is a communal art.

However, engagement in and of itself is pretty meaningless if it’s not part of a larger strategy aimed toward enriching our musical life

with differing points of view, different aesthetics, different move-ments. So creating and managing strategic diversity is crucial. There’s a Talmudic statement inside whose capsule is an admonition, and it goes like this: “We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.” And for that, sometimes we pay a steep price.

As we move toward developing a compelling strategic vision, to-ward empowering the diversified Eastman Advantage, our strategic vision will be rooted firmly in the essential lifeblood of any great music school: its students and its faculty. Yet our vision will also be rooted in discussions about diversity that will not simply focus on ethnic diversity, but also on aesthetic and intellectual diversity as well. We have, as I speak, an excellent diversity committee hard at work on these questions, and they will present to me a draft state-ment shortly not just on what Eastman’s position will be on diversity, but what we’re going to do about it.

Another stated goal of the Eastman Advantage: making music mat-ter, initiatives that will delve into questions of music’s very relevance. We will discuss music’s vital role in the allied arts, and how this in-tertwining has only the most positive benefits for music’s future. Toward this end, we will host an international conference that will engage internationally prominent critics, creators, and scholars, not just in music, but in the visual arts, film, dance, and multi-media as well. And we will call this conference Music Out of a Vacuum.

Once a goal is accomplished, how do we behave? Have we prepared ourselves for the next step in our pursuit

of even higher excellence?


Why a vacuum? Everyone is fond of saying that music is a univer-sal language, but why is it that when serious discussions take place about the future of music, only the music professionals are involved? I would argue that music has evolved in a much larger stew pot than one of “just music,” in the same way that fiction, film, photography, poetry, dance, drama, you name it, have evolved. But I have to tell you that some of these other art forms have re-established their urgency and necessity in the culture because they invited others into the discussion, and in the process not only found enrichment, but inspiration.

We should fear not the possibility of throwing ourselves into the general contradictions of what this might bring. We can’t fear that tumult. As John Keats said, “There is nothing stable in the world; uproar is your only music.”

We will further develop a focused set of what will be called Eastman Collaboratives, building on some groundbreaking linkages. For example, already begun initiatives with the UR River Campus on something called

“music and sound”; or a conference next summer with the Mannes Institute on rock and roll and jazz; or enhanced performance opportunities with River Campus students combined with Eastman students, not just to enrich music, but to enrich the community, our community.

L ast but not least, we will strate-gically protect and enhance the Eastman legacy by building and revitalizing the infrastructure.

We absolutely need to mine deep for re-sources for faculty and student support, and for facilities, using the remarkable accelera-tion of the Eastman Theatre Renovation and Enhancement Project as a platform for our broader advancement efforts.

We will strengthen the beacon of Eastman’s communications signal, revamping the web-site, energizing its content and engage-ability, innovating its media, figuring out ways to ensure that the story of Eastman’s great work is told far and wide. The CD we wish to record is our collective vision with a worldwide distribution deal.

While this will require doing a better job at calling attention to our work, it also means we must develop strong personal stories that constantly dramatize the link between music and what is human. I hope we can keep in mind the words of Laura Riding, who said, “If what you write is true, it will not be true because of what you are as a writer, but because of what you are as a human being.”

In the end, no matter what our Eastman script, how lucidly and compellingly we write it, how nimbly we produce it, how well we

mine the necessary fuels to generate sufficient long-term support to stoke its dreams, it will be about making music matter.

And our envisioned dream must matter to more than just us, the audience of the professionals. We cannot behave as if music is an end in itself. As Henry Miller said, “Art is only a means to life … in becoming an end, it defeats itself.” To do that, we must also conduct our work amidst a compulsion to contribute. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: “When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.”

Writ large on our façade, George Eastman’s muse looks over us: “For the enrichment of community life.” We are the alchemists who must convert music into something meaningful, something commu-

nal. I would argue that if we keep connected to the soul of civiliza-tion, the audience will take care of itself.

And to that full experience must we be truthful. As ephemeral as the dream may be, as realities curve the pattern, we must believe in it.

President Seligman, students, faculty, alums and friends, indeed, the entire Eastman family, thank you for sharing this moment. I can-not tell you what an extraordinary honor it is for me to serve you as the sixth dean of the Eastman School of Music. Thank you.

ON THE WEB Douglas Lowry’s inaugural address is also available on the Eastman website: www.esm.rochester.edu/news/investiture_2007.php.

Special events at the inauguration included the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Marian McPartland, jazz piano legend and long a familiar face at Eastman.


Plans for the expansion include a magnificent new atrium lobby. Below: The Eastman School and Theatre facade, complete at last.

George Eastman dreamed big in 1921, and his dream house will be complete in 2010

It was originally the home of an apartment building; it was supposed to be part of the Eastman School and Eastman Theatre in 1921, but George Eastman and the owner of the property couldn’t come to terms on a price (surely one of the few times the great George was ever thwarted). As a result, the building stayed for decades, and the Eastman School façade ended abruptly on East Main Street. When it was eventually torn down, the property was purchased by the University of Rochester; but the land that had been the focus of grand plans had to settle for becoming an Eastman parking lot.

Now Eastman is thinking big again about the triangular parcel of land at the corner of East Main Street and Swan Street. In March 2007, the School received $8 million from the State that enabled it to proceed with further improvements

to the Theatre. In September 2007, the University announced an additional $5 million grant from New York State, enabling the School to include an addition in its plans.

The plan, designed by Chantreuil, Jensen, Stark Architects, includes an ex-pansion of the Eastman Theatre lobby, a 200-seat recital hall, additional faculty and rehearsal studios (including a large-ensemble rehearsal space), and a new recording control suite. Construction on this $37 million project is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2008.

90yearsin the making

ON THE WEB For background and news updates on the Eastman School and Theater renovation, go to www.esm.rochester.edu/news/renovation_news.php.

“We’re not only going to get more space. We’re going to get ‘wow’ space.”

—University of Rochester President Joel Seligman

Winter 2008 | Eastman Notes 13CHAINTREUIL, JENSEN, STARK ARCHITECTS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KURT BROWNELL

Saxology served up some jammin’ jazz (above), and Mahler’s First Symphony rang out from the Eastman Theatre stage, with the Philharmonia led by Neil Varon (below). Both groups are shown in rehearsal.


SCHOOL NEWS

The gift that keeps on givingRochester got an early holiday present on November 29, when several Eastman ensem-bles came together to offer The Gift of Music: an eclectic smorgasbord of musical goodies by Mahler, Copland, Steve Reich, Stephen Sondheim, and many others in the elegant wrapping of the Eastman Theatre. The Gift of Music revived the popular Prism Concerts that were a popular feature at Eastman in the 1970s and 1980s.

Different ensembles positioned through-out the Theatre—on stage, in the house, and even in the balcony—performed a non-stop hour of music. The Philharmonia, Chorale, Musica Nova, and Opera Theatre were the featured School ensembles, but the audi-ence also heard a heavy metal tune from the cellists in Break of Reality, a duet by lutenist Paul O’Dette and fortepianist Kris Bezuidenhout, music for saxophone and per-cussion ensembles, and much more.

The Gift of Music, under the artistic direc-tion of Senior Executive Associate Dean Jamal Rossi, was given to celebrate the 75th annual meeting of the New York State School Music Association (nyssma).

Orff-Schulwerk training classes for music teachers are a staple of Eastman’s summer sessions. Above: an Orff-instruments ensemble from a 2007 class.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JANET ROBBINS Winter 2008 | Eastman Notes 15

SCHOOL NEWS

By Ruth Cahn

Great scholars, enthusiastic students, stimulating guest faculty, varied concerts in Kilbourn Hall, and inspired young musi-cians—just another great summer at Eastman! Our programs made the news several times:

Professor Kathleen Bride and her • Practical Harpist students performed live on wxxi-fm’s Backstage Pass with host Julia Figueras. I also previewed “Summer at Eastman 2007” with Julia.

The • San Antonio (tx) Monitor highlighted the career of William Buhidar, a partici-pant in our Summer Orchestral Conducting Institute. William praised his experience with Professor Neil Varon and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as intensive and life-changing.

Kazoophony, led by Barbara Stewart, ap-• peared on our summer concert series. The Eastman performance, and their quest to make the kazoo the National Instrument, was featured on CBS Sunday Morning.

Guest faculty included alumni Truman Bullard, Clay Greenberg, Bob Becker, William Cahn, Gregory Ristow, Katie Dey, Debbie Imiolo-Schriver, and Rick Erickson. Jazz pianist/conductor/improviser extraor-dinaire Lee Musiker attended the Summer Conducting Institute and entertained us all with his wonderful gift for piano improvisa-tion. Julianne Baird returned for a Baroque Vocal Workshop, Gene Bertoncini for a Jazz Guitar Weekend, and Dale Warland joined William Weinert in Week II of the Choral Institute. Caterina Falli’s English as a Second Language students attended classes and be-came acculturated to the Eastman lifestyle; all 16 are now matriculating at Eastman.

Our World Music trilogy—African Drum-ming with Bob Becker; Creative Music Mak-ing with Bill Cahn; and Balinese Gamelan with Clay Greenberg—attracted eager stu-dents and a long waiting list. A Trumpet In-

Summer 2007: Noteworthy and newsworthy

stitute with Wesley Nance and Doug Prosser, and a Viola Institute with George Taylor and Katie Dey were exciting new additions. All will return in 2008, as will the Eastman Trombone Institute with Mark Kellogg and James Martin, for its third year.

Summer would not be summer without our youngest musicians from the Eastman Community Music School, who bring so much energy and enthusiasm to our cam-pus. New ecms programs included: High

School Wind Ensemble (led by Bill Tiberio); Summer Trumpet Seminar with Herb Smith; and Excelsior! for New Horizons adults (led by Marcia Bornhurst Parkes). The Summer Jazz Studies students were truly exceptional, amazing young artists. Our Music Horizons program for “classical students” completed its 23rd year with 62 students attending.

Ruth Cahn is director of Eastman School Summer Session.

ON THE WEB Information about the upcoming Summer 2008 session is at www.esm.rochester.edu/summer.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY EASTMAN ARCHIVES

“In the presence of greatness”: Alfred Mann’s legacy to Eastman was not only musical and intellectual, but also personal and emotional.


SCHOOL NEWS

During the weekend of November 15¬18, 2007, Eastman presented an Alfred Mann Music Festival, a salute to the great teacher, conductor, and musicologist. Mann, who died in September 2006, was a much-loved member of the Eastman faculty from 1980 to 1987, serving as professor emeritus thereafter. The Festival included a scholarly symposium, as well as performances of two choral works closely associated with Alfred Mann: Handel’s Messiah (conducted by Thomas Folan, DMA ’03) and Bach’s Mass in B Minor (led by Professor of Conducting William Weinert). Among those present were former associates of Mann’s, and two of his three sons. Marie Rolf, associate dean for graduate studies and professor of theory, introduced the symposium with her reminiscences of Alfred Mann; a brief excerpt follows.

Remembering “a consummate musician”and many translations, required an unbe-lievable amount of sheer Sitzfleisch—or, in Alfred’s case, Standfleisch, for he wrote every day, standing at his desk in his room at home, with his library and instruments nearby.

Alfred’s impressive list of publications and performances notwithstanding, his com-mitment and generosity as a teacher are the qualities that we at Eastman will perhaps remember best. Just as his scholarship was influenced by his performance activity, so his teaching and research fit hand in glove. Similiarly, there were no seams between his professional life and his domestic life. He thoroughly enjoyed sharing his knowledge and experiences with his students, whom he shepherded and guided with the patience of a loving father.

But he also invited students to his home, where they felt truly part of his family— who wouldn’t, with the warmth and humor that exuded from his wife and sons, and with Carolyn’s marvelous cuisine and the won-der of discovery she brought to their house-hold through her work with the Front Porch Theater, a children’s theatrical group that she founded here in Rochester and that worked off the front porch of the Manns’ home on Scribner Road, a house now occupied by Tom and Andrea Folan.

In spite of Alfred’s supreme modesty and kind and gentle demeanor, those who met him instinctively knew they were in the presence of greatness, and they afforded him the esteem, respect, and loyalty he deserved. His mere presence inevitably elevated the discourse and behavior of those around him, whether they were students or colleagues, or whether they were non-musicians. Perhaps as important as any music lesson he ever gave, Alfred taught us to be loving and gen-erous with each other. What a profound legacy he leaves us—as musician, scholar, teacher, friend.

By Marie Rolf

Alfred was a perfect fit for Eastman because he was such a consummate musician—a re-markable combination of scholar, performer, and teacher … Alfred’s scholarship was in-timately connected with his work as a per-forming musician, especially as conductor of

the Bethlehem Bach Choir, with whom his performances of the B-Minor Mass were leg-endary … Alfred’s interest in choral music was shared with countless choral conductors, both in person and in the numerous articles and reviews he penned for the American Choral Review, which he edited for 38 years. These offerings, along with his editorial work

ON THE WEB Information on the Alfred Mann Music festival, and a biography of Mann by Michael Dodds (MA ’91, PhD ’99) is at www.esm.rochester.edu/mann.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY GELFAND-PIPER PHOTOGRAPHY (EASTMAN OPERA); KURT BROWNELL (FEO COMPETITION) Winter 2008 | Eastman Notes 17

SCHOOL NEWS

“Perpetual sunset/is rather an unset-tling thing,” sing several of the characters in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. This sophisticated musical, based on the Ingmar Bergman film comedy Smiles of a Summer Night, opened on Broadway in 1973 and is now frequently produced by opera companies, so Eastman Opera Theatre’s performance this fall was not surprising—particularly after our recent productions of Sondheim’s Passion, Sweeney Todd, Company, and Assassins. The interlocking stories of several sets of mismatched couples who sort themselves out properly during a weekend at a Scandinavian chateau, A Little Night Music is a romantic, but definitely modern, oper-etta with the sardonic Sondheim touch.

The show’s best-known song is the ballad “Send in the Clowns,” but the rest of the score

is of a very high order. Two student casts (aug-mented by Professor of Voice Carol Webber in the role of Madame Armfeldt), directed by Benton Hess and Stephen Daigle, negotiated Sondheim’s soaring waltz melodies, intricate ensembles, and tongue-twisting lyrics for a weekend of sold-out performances.

Two weeks later, on November 17, the Friends of Eastman Opera held its seventh annual Voice Competition. Guest adjudi-cator Darren K. Woods of the Fort Worth Opera, joined by a nearly full Kilbourn Hall, heard eight student contestants sing arias by composers from Mozart to Stravinsky. Bari-tone Evan Jones won the Lynne Clarke Vocal Prize (first prize); soprano Julia Cramer won second prize; and mezzo-soprano Quinn Patrick won third prize. All three recently performed in A Little Night Music.

Eastman Opera: Perpetual sunsets, tomorrow’s starsThe Night Music cast prepared for “A Weekend in the Country” on a stage set almost as complicated as Sondheim’s music and lyrics.

Send in the winners: adjudicator Darren K. Woods, baritone Evan Jones, mezzo-soprano Quinn Patrick, and soprano Julia Cramer after the 2007 FEO Competition.


Eastman’s fall concerts started out with a blast of brass: the world-famous Canadian Brass, frequent summertime visitors to the School.

On September 28, the venerable and very famous quintet joined the Eastman Wind Ensemble and conductor Mark Davis Scatterday for a lively, popular concert of American music including Sousa marches, Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got that Swing,” selections from Bernstein’s Mass, and more. The day after performing to a large Eastman Theatre au-dience, everyone reconvened on the ET stage to record the concert program for a forthcoming CD. The combined groups will tour to promote the new recording in summer 2008.

They’ve still got that swing

Canadian Brass charter member and tuba player Chuck Daellenbach (BM ’66, MM ’68, PhD ’71) returned to Eastman for this concert and recording session with his colleagues.

SCHOOL NEWS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY GELFAND-PIPER PHOTOGRAPHY

SCHOOL NEWS


Eastman often hosts visits from guest artists; in November it hosted a stageful, as singers from Ohio’s Bowling Green State University came to Kilbourn Hall for a performance of a real Baroque rarity: a new edition of the opera Il virtù de’strali d’amore (The Power of Love’s arrows) by Francesco Cavalli, which was very likely unperformed between its 1642 premiere and its performance at BGSU on November 7, 2007.

The revival featured BGSU student singers, with Eastman’s Paul O’Dette leading mem-bers of Collegium Musicum in the pit. The November 9 performance was followed the next morning by a Musicology Department symposium on the opera and on this produc-tion, which was set in Macao and used many elements of Chinese theater.

The increasingly prominent role of guitar at Eastman, and in the classical-music world in general, was reflected in this fall’s Eastman Guitarfest. Originally a part of Eastman’s Summer Session, the festival returned in 2007 as a series of guitar and lute concerts at Eastman and Nazareth College between September 28 and October 9, featuring a galaxy of plucky virtuosi who happened to be in town around the same time.

Eastman professors Nicholas Goluses (who arranged the Guitarfest in associa-tion with the International Guitar Institute) and Paul O’Dette showed their stuff in re-citals; guest artists David Russell and Pepe Romero gave recitals and master classes. Romero, of the legendary guitar-playing family, is shown here in a master class with Evan Drummond.

Eastman’s Ciminelli Lounge was an intimate setting for Pepe Romero’s master class on September 28.

A festival with pluck – and luck

Cavalli goes to China

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KURT BROWNELL (GUITAR FESTIVAL) AND COURTESY BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY (OPERA)

SCHOOL NEWS


Double the reeds, double the funK. David Van Hoesen built a reputation as a legendary bassoonist and teacher during his 37 years at Eastman; many of his students are prominent in major orchestras and teaching at important colleges and universities.

Many of Van Hoesen’s adoring students, along with students of Eastman’s current bassoon professor, John Hunt, converged on the School on November 19 for a weekend of memories and music.

Van Hoesen himself was present to talk with his former students, and to demonstrate a reed making machine of his own design. Van Hoesen is in the first row, fourth from the right, with John Hunt standing behind him in black shirt and yellow tie.

The Craighead Saunders Organ is a copy of an 18th-century

instrument ideal for performing the music of J.S. Bach.

SCHOOL NEWS

Now in its seventh year, the Eastman-Rochester Organ Initiative continues its mission of making Eastman, and Rochester, a world center in organ performance and research—and a growing treasure trove of beautiful, historic instruments. The focus of eroi 2007, which took place from October 11¬14, was on the School’s latest acquisi-tion, the Craighead-Saunders Organ. A crew spent much of the summer and fall at Christ Church Episcopal, on East Avenue one block from the School, preparing for the installa-tion of this impressive instrument, a rep-lica of a 1776 Casparini organ discovered in

Vilnius, Lithuania, and which is named after two legendary Eastman organ professors, David Craighead and Russell Saunders.

As with previous eroi Festivals, musi-cians, scholars, and organ enthusiasts came together for a weekend of learning about organ documentation and conservation, and to enjoy organ demonstrations and recitals at the Memorial Art Gallery, local churches, and other sites. In addition to the scholarly presentations, historic organ citations were given to the Strong Auditorium’s Aeolian-Skinner Organ, and the Memorial Art Gallery’s Italian Baroque Organ.

Eroi 2007 also commemorated the 300th anniversary of the death of the Danish master organist and composer Dieterich Buxtehude (1637¬1707) with a presentation by Professor Emerita Kerala Snyder and performances of Buxtehude’s music. Eroi 2007 was part of the University of Rochester Humanities Project, The Organ in Society: Culture and Technology, presented in association with the Organ Historical Society.

ON THE WEB For more information on EROI 2007, EROI 2008, and the Craighead-Saunders Organ, visit www.esm.rochester.edu/EROI.

During the installation of the Craighead-Saunders Organ, Christ Church’s “substitute organ” will be an 18-foot-high tracker organ donated to the School in 2006 by Noel and Carolyn Nilson.

The Nilsons rescued the instrument, built in 1896 by the Hook and Hastings Company of Boston, from St. Joseph’s Church in

Pepperell, Massachusetts, in 1967, where it was scheduled to be demolished. Traveling with the Nilson family from New Jersey, to Connecticut, to Massachusetts, the restora-tion and maintenance of the organ was truly a labor of love.

Hearing about the Eastman-Rochester Organ Initiative, the Nilsons (who now live

in Cleveland) made a gift of the unique organ to Eastman. And were, of course, honored guests at the 2007 eroi Festival.

In a commemorative book produced be-fore handing the organ over to Eastman, the Nilsons remark that the beautiful instrument has been “loved, cared for, taught, learned, played, and shared.”

Reviving the past and creating the future: EROI 2007

“Loved, learned, played, and shared”

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PO YAO CHEN (VAN HOESEN), STEVE BOERNER (ORGAN)

1940sEmma Lou Diemer (MM ’49, PhD ’60) sends word of several new recordings of her music. Indian Flute for Flute and Narration, performed by Nina Assimakopoulos is available on the Capstone CD Points of Entry: The Laurels Project, Vol. 1; Piano Sonata No. 3 is on Nancy Boston’s CD American Women: Modern Voices in Piano Music ([email protected]). Emma Lou’s Six Songs was released on the CRS Artists CD Canadian-American Composers (CD-0481) in 2004.

Richard M. Ziter (BM ’49, MM ’51) was grand marshal of Bennington, VT’s 52nd Fall Foliage Festival Parade, held September 30, 2007. After receiving a degree in piano perfor-mance from Eastman, Richard received a BS and medical degree from the University of Vermont. He recently completed more than 30 years as an eye surgeon. Richard now gives benefit piano concerts in the Berkshires, and performed at Tanglewood in 2004.

1950sGlenn Bowen (MM ’56, DMA ’68), professor emeritus from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) since 1992, recently retired from one of the great professional concert bands: the Capitol City Band of Madison, WI, in which he was a clarinetist and served as chief arranger for 14 years. Glenn and

his wife, Wini, thrive in Tucson, AZ, and dote on their five grandchildren.

John Glenn Paton (MM ’59) sang songs by four French composers on a faculty recital at Moorpark College in February 2007. He is editing an anthology of mélodies for Alfred Publishing Company.

Arlene Cohen Stein (BM ’57, MM ’70) will qualify as a Notes special

correspondent soon! Last October Arlene and her husband, Harry, visited Spokane, WA, to attend their granddaughter Jessica’s Bat Mitzvah. While in Spokane, Arlene contacted and met with ESM alumni from several different decades, who all had a great time reminiscing about their Eastman days—and who posed for a photo. Good work, Arlene! From left to right, we see Verne Windham (BM ’68), who is now director of the Spokane Youth Orchestra and Spokane Public Radio; Kim Pleniak (BM ’94), principal bass of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra; Gail Coffee (BM ’61), assistant principal flute and personnel man-ager of the Spokane Symphony; Bruce Bodden (BM ’86), SSO Principal Flute; Arlene herself; and Steve Radcliffe, who attended Eastman from 1962–1964. Not pic-tured is Angela Burr (BM ’64), librarian at St. George’s School.

1960sWilliam M. Anderson (BM ’63, MM ’64), has been elected president

Sometimes, it’s just hard to leave home. And after five years of graduate school and two degrees in Jazz and Contemporary Media, the Eastman School feels like home to me now. Five years of unforgettable moments in

Kilbourn Hall, Eastman Theatre, in Room 120 … long hours in Sibley Library, the Computer Lab, practice rooms … and thou-sands of hours working with friends, colleagues, and faculty … it’s been hard at times not to think of Gibbs Street as my pri-mary address. So after complet-ing my doctoral coursework in the spring of 2007, joining the Eastman School as Assistant Director of Alumni Relations and Career Services Coordinator was as comfortable for me as taking a seat in the trombone section of the Eastman Jazz Ensemble.

My name is Russell Scarbrough, and I am very happy to be a part

of the Institute for Music Leadership at the Eastman School, serving both current stu-dents and our illustrious alumni. I oversee all Eastman alumni ser-vices and events, both on and off campus. I also coordinate Eastman Weekend, the school’s bi-annual gathering of alumni, students, faculty, and parents, which will coincide with Meliora Weekend on the River Campus this year, on October 16-19. I also assist current Eastman students in their career development, providing advising services, maintaining web resources, and facilitating contact between students and Eastman alumni around the world.

It is truly a privilege for me to be serving the community that is dearest to my heart. I encour-age all alumni to take advantage of all the resources we have available; our newly updated website is at www.esm.rochester.edu/iml. You can also reach us by phone at (585) 274-1111 or 866-ESM-ALUM during business hours. We look forward to hear-ing from you.

Best Regards,

Russell Scarbrough (MM ’04, DMA ’07)

ALUMNI NOTES

A greeting from our new Alumni Relations Director


Russell Scarbrough

An Eastman reunion in Spokane, arranged by Arlene Cohen Stein (second from right). See 1950s, column four, for the rest of the participants.

PHOTO BY GEORGE MOTT/GLIMMERGLASS OPERA (JOYCE CASTLE) Winter 2008 | Eastman Notes 23

of the Ohio Foundation for Music Education.

Among those taking part in Bard College’s John Cage Tribute Concert on September 27 was the percussion ensemble Nexus, including Bob Becker (BM ’69) and Bill Cahn (BM ’68). Nexus played the U.S. premiere, and the third performance ever, of Cage’s Dance Music for Elfrid Ide (1940), which was rediscovered in 2005. (Nexus has a long history with Cage, and took part in the com-poser’s 70th birthday “Musicircus” in Los Angeles in 1987.) The group was also an important presence at the Ojai (CA) Music Festival in June, the Toronto Summer Music Festival in August, and in concerts with the Pacific and Kansas City Symphony Orchestras. See www.nexuspercus-sion.com for details.

Lewis Buckley (BM ’69) was appointed music director of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony in the Boston area (www.mws-boston.org), effective the 2007-2008 season. Buckley, who in 2004 retired from his conducting position with the U. S. Coast Guard Band as the longest- tenured conductor of a single mili-tary band in American history, is also the conductor of the Manchester (CT) Symphony. He and his wife, Karen (Hopper) Buckley (BM ’68), are also partners with Bryan Doughty in Cimarron Music Press.

This fall Marlan Carlson (MM ’61, DMA ’64) started his 23rd season as conductor of the “mostly” profes-

sional Corvallis-Oregon State University Symphony Orchestra (www.symphony.peak.org) and his 15th year as chair of the OSU Music Department, where he holds the Eugene and Eleanor Otwell Endowed Chair for Orchestral Studies and has directed study abroad programs in London, Cologne, Stuttgart, Vienna, Siena, and Angers, France—opportunities that have allowed him to pursue his lifelong passion for for-eign languages and working abroad. In June, he and three Russian pia-nists recorded piano concertos by Glazunov, Scriabin, and Tchaikovsky with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow. For the past seven years, Marlan has conducted and taught in China, principally in Zhengzhou, but also in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chengdu at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. In 2002, he was named “Permanent Honorable Guest Conductor” of the Henan

The well-traveled Marlan Carlson, shown here conducting in China, where he has conducted and taught for the last seven years.

Lewis Buckley

CastlesqueMezzo-soprano Joyce Castle (MM ’66) always has a busy and varied schedule, but the past couple of years have been exceptional, even for her. In summer 2006, Joyce sang the role of Augusta Tabor in the 50th anniversary production of Douglas Moore’s The Ballad of Baby doe in Central City, Colorado, where this popular opera premiered in 1956.

Last January, Joyce played the Widow Begbick in the Weill-Brecht Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny for Opera Boston, following that with an April run as Mrs. Bertram in Jake Heggie’s The End of the affair with Lyric Opera of Kansas City (a CD of the performance will be released in 2008). Last summer she played Public Opinion in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld at Glimmerglass Opera (shown above), and in the fall played Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon for the New York City Opera.

Joyce’s recent CDs include Strawberry Fields by Michael Torke (MM ’81; see p. 25) and Flesh and Stone: Vocal Music of Jake Heggie (Americus), on which Joyce sings Statuesque, a song cycle written for her by Heggie and Gene Scheer (BM ’81, MM ’82), in which five famous statues of women come to life. All proceeds from the sales of Flesh and Stone benefit Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS (www.americuscd.com).

Joyce Castle as Public Opinion in Glimmerglass Opera’s production of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld

PHOTO BY PETER SCHAFF24 Eastman Notes | Winter 2008

Province Symphony Orchestra, and in 2006, one of four recipients of the Henan “Yellow River Award.” Last year, Marlan and his wife, Angela, celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

Ray Nutaitis (MM ’64) is the new Director of the KBAQ Production Studio at Arizona State University, recording over 100 live concerts annually of ASU Faculty and interna-tional touring artists for later broad-cast on Classical Radio KBAQ FM 89.5.

G. Stanley Powell (MM ’67) was honored at a concert at the Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, PA, on May 18, 2007, where he was guest conductor of both its choir and orchestra. The concert commemo-rated the 35th anniversary of the church’s concert series, “Music at Abington,” which he founded in 1972. At the conclusion of the concert, Stanley, who was minister of music of Abington Church for 20 years, retiring in 1990, was awarded the title of Minister of Music Emeritus.

Sandra L. Seefeld (BM ’68) retired from 30 years of teaching flute full-time for the Department of Music of Miami University (Oxford, OH), on May 31, 2007. She was given the Crossan Hays Curry Distinguished Educator Award, the highest honor that the Miami University School of Fine Arts bestows upon worthy fac-ulty. Sandra has concertized world-wide, and was a founding member of the Miami Wind Quintet for 21 years.

On September 1, 2007, the Rev. Gene Tucker (BM ’69) became Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, Mt. Vernon, IL.

1970sToccata: Act of War for solo piano by Larry Barnes (DMA ’79) was chosen by the Society of Composers, Inc. for a recording by pianist Jeri-Mae Astolfi, and was released on Capstone Records in the compila-tion Sonance: New Music For Piano in April 2007. His Toccata was also commercially recorded in 2007 by Gregory Partain on Piano Works, Vol. II, released by MSR Records in March. Larry recently completed an original score for a new cut of the full-length documentary Euphoria, which took the Gold Award at the

Houston Film Festival. He is cur-rently providing additional scoring and sound design for Baltimore film director Lee Boot.

Violinist Martha Curtis (BM ’78) was guest speaker at the Epilepsy Foundation’s annual community edu-cation conference, held in Rochester in November. Martha originally thought that epilepsy would derail her career as a violinist, but she even-tually played in four orchestras and now encourages others to “live a life they want to live … I want people to know they can do anything despite something as stupid as epilepsy.”

Sandra Goldberg (BM ’77) writes: “In September I presented a half hour of my own compositions as part of the Zürich Chamber Orchestra (ZKO) Open House weekend. Included were all of the instrumental movements from my musical drama Judah Judah (about Judah the Maccabee and the struggle for reli-gious freedom). I played some violin solos, conducted and even played the tambourine! In January we presented a chamber music concert with tenor, violin, cello and piano, also spon-sored by the ZKO. In addition to works by Haydn and Shostakovich, we performed two of my songs, ‘Window Ships’ and ‘Fisherman.’ ”

Margaret (Meg) Hackett (MM ’78) is a partner in the Baltimore law firm Hodes, Pessin, and Katz. She has also been minister of music at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church for the past 16 years. Meg’s husband, John Oliver (MM ’75), after 18 years as a United

Church of Christ pastor and seven years as a hospice chaplain, is work-ing part-time as a retirement home chaplain so that he can entertain senior citizens in retirement communities in the Baltimore-Washington area, accompanying himself on piano and singing stan-dards of the American musical the-ater, from Show Boat to Ragtime. Meg and John, married 29 years, have two sons: Isaac, an aspiring playwright living and working in New York City; and Nathan, who is completing his studies at the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh. Meg adds, “Both of us are grateful for the wonderful experiences and training we received at Eastman.”

Michael Isaacson (PhD ’79) announces the publication of his latest book, Jewish Music as Midrash: What Makes Music Jewish?, a schol-arly answer to the question “using both sides of his and our brains.”

In the book, Michael dis-cusses the issues central to each facet of his com-prehensive definition; two CDs included with the book illustrate his

points with many musical examples. Jewish Music as Midrash has been described by none other than Samuel Adler as, “A profoundly original new book.” For information about the book, visit MichaelIsaacson.com.

Robert Jesselson (MM ’79) is executive director of the National String Project Consortium, with String project sites at 25 universities around the country addressing the string teacher shortage. Robert has raised more than $2.2. million for these programs, including recent grants from Strings magazine and the D’Addario Foundation. During sum-mer 2007, Robert taught cello at the University of Auckland (NZ) and at the Green Mountain Festival (VT).

Geary Larrick (MM ’70) premiered his Poem V: Drum in July 2007 in Stevens Point, WI. Geary played the piece with a leather beater on an 18-inch elkskin frame ceremonial drum made by Ho-Chunk and pro-vided by Cheyenne Norman Hale—the first time the drum was played in public, as well. Poem V is dedi-cated to Geary’s daughter, Sulina. He still performs regularly on piano, marimba, snare drum, and percus-sion. In 2008, Geary is celebrating 40 years as a published scholar, most recently a music review in the Fall 2007 NACWPI Journal.

Robert Lau’s (MA ’70) choral and organ works were featured at Celebration 33, the annual choral workshop presented by Hinshaw Music Company, which included a concert held in the chapel of Duke University in Durham, NC, in which Robert and fellow honoree John Rutter conducted the Bel Canto Company of Raleigh. Former chair of the Music Department at Lebanon Valley College, Robert is now an adjunct member of the faculty of Penn State Harrisburg, and Organist/Choirmaster at Mt. Calvary Episcopal Church in Camp Hill, PA. He is also artistic director of the Jubilate! choral ensemble of Gettysburg.

On November 25, John Longhurst (DMA ’71), who served as senior Tabernacle organist for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, accompanied the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Sunday broadcast, and then retired after a 30-year career. In a long interview in the Deseret Morning News, John described some of his experiences during those three decades, which saw great expansion and renovation in Salt Lake City’s Temple Square. John also composed one of the Mormon Church’s most popular hymns, I Believe in Christ.

ALUMNI NOTES

Send your news!Do you have an announcement you’d like to share with your fellow alumni? Send your personal and professional news to Notes, Office of Communications, Eastman School of Music, 26 Gibbs Street, Rochester, New York 14604.

Fax: 585-274-1089E-mail: [email protected]

We reserve the right to edit submissions for clarity and length.The deadline for the Summer issue of Notes is May 16, 2008.

News of your upcoming events such as concerts and lectures can be posted live on the Eastman alumni website: www.esm.rochester.edu/alumni


Several composi-tions by the prolific Dan Locklair (DMA ’81) are featured on a new CD (Naxos 8.559337). Symphony of Seasons, Harp

Concerto, Lairs of Sounding, Phoenix and again, and In Memory – H.H.L. are per-formed by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirk Trevor. The disc has received some positive reviews; and Trevor calls the string orchestra piece In Memory – H.H.L. “A worthy successor to the Barber adagio.” More information at www.locklair.com.

Last year, Maria Schneider (MM ’85) and her Orchestra won a Grammy for Concert in the Garden; now they have a 2008

Grammy nod for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album” for Sky Blue, and Maria’s track “Cerulean Skies” is nominated for “Best Instrumental Composition.” The acclaimed CD is Maria’s latest released only through ArtistShare and not available in stores. See www.artistshare.com for more information. (See Eastman-related Grammy news on p. 35.)

Michael Torke’s (BM ’84) one-act opera Strawberry Fields was the hit of the three-composer, three-librettist tril-ogy Central Park,

presented at Glimmerglass Opera and the New York City Opera in 2000–2001. Now the opera, with libretto by A. R. Gurney and a memorable leading performance by mezzo- soprano Joyce Castle (MM ’66), is available on Michael’s label Ecstatic (92208), coupled with his vocal work Pentecost. It is available from www.michaeltorke.com. (For more on Joyce, including another new CD, see p. 23.)

SNMNMNM’s soph-omore effort, Crawl inside Your Head (Unschooled 023), includes a variety of original tunes arranged for a vari-

ety of instruments (including tuba, of course) played by Seamus Kennedy (BM ’98), Matthew Kennedy (BM ’99), and Mark Daumen.

Pianist/composer Darrell Grant (BM ’84) calls his latest effort, Truth and Reconciliation (Origin 82477), “my dream CD.” The

recording, inspired by Darrell’s study of the struggle for justice in South Africa, is actually two CDs of original music, arrangements, and words from Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr., among others.

Chris Gekker’s (BM ’76) latest CD, Clarion (Albany TROY 962) features his trumpet work in two pieces by fel-low Eastman alumni:

New England Portraits and Trio for Violin, Trumpet, and Piano by Eric Ewazen (BM ’76) and the title track, a composition by long-time Eastman professor Sydney Hodkinson (BM ’57, MM ’58).

Nebhel and Kinnor: ancient Sounds of Music, by Max Stern (BM ’69) features compositions based on relics of ancient music, written for

reconstructions of King David’s harps. The CD also includes Max’s Three ancient Pieces, Perek Shirah, and Jacob Struggling with the angel, performed by the Israel Sinfonietta and soloists. (ACUM M12)

Pianist Nathanael May (MM ’01) is a featured musician on a new CD of cham-ber music by Paul Richards, an associ-ate professor at the

University of Florida. Nathanael is heard on two pieces with his Strung Out Trio: Cypriot Structures and Falling on Lobsters in the dark. (Meyer Media MMO7008)

The music and guitar playing of Chris Jentsch (MM ’93) and his Jentsch Group Large are heard on Brooklyn Suite (Fleur de Son

FDSJ 57987). The ambitious suite, in which the composer uses the large jazz ensemble like a symphony orchestra, is inspired by Chris’s life since moving to Brooklyn in 1999. Chris premiered the quartet version of his suite on January 10 at the Tea Lounge in Brooklyn, and premiered his new Cycles Suite at The Kitchen on February 11.

Paul Marquardt (BM, ’88) has recently been featured as a per-former on Eric Richards: the bells themselves, a CD

recording of the music of American com-poser Eric Richards, released on New World Records. He performs the title track the bells themselves : Jonathan Edwards and the american Songbook for three pianos. He recorded all three parts at One Soul Studios in New York City in 2006. He is living in the Jacksonville, FL, area and work-ing as a System Engineer at Bank of America. He is currently working on several computer music projects and performs in the Jacksonville area with his wife, Ruxandra, who is the Principal Second Violin in the Jacksonville Symphony.

Eastman alumni on CD

ALUMNI NOTES


Percussion ensemble extraordinaire Nexus, whose members include Bob Becker (BM ’69) and Bill Cahn (BM ’68), is heard on two recent CDs;

Wings, which includes Bob’s Unseen Child and Bill’s Just Sing; and The Music of Jo Kondo, the group’s 25th CD, in which Nexus per-forms the Japanese composer’s Under the Umbrella, for 25 cowbells and a gong. For information, visit www.nexuspercussion.com.

Three works for brass by Vincent Frohne (MM ’59, PhD ’63) are on a CD by GandF (FR 006A): Movements for Brass; a quartet

for brass; and a sonata for trumpet and piano, performed by trumpeter James Searl (MM ’60) and pianist John Landis (BM ’62). For information, write to GandF Associates, 12965 E. 900th St., Macomb, IL 61455.

Pianist Beata Golec (MM ’05 and a doc-toral candidate) recently released a new CD consisting of her own pieces Prelude No. 2,

Toccata, and Forests; Calendar Collection by Judith Lang Zaimont; Two Sonatinas by Arvo Pärt, and Mozart’s Sonata, KV 330. For more information, visit www.beatagolec.us.

Margaret Martin Kvamme (BM ’89), has recorded her debut album, Sevenfold Gifts (Albany Records TROY 940), on the

organ of Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz, CA. Included are works by several contem-porary Americans, including Margaret Vardell Sandresky (MM ’84), Pamela Decker, and Emma Lou Diemer (MM ’49, PhD ’60),

along with works by Bach, Mendelssohn, and Theodore Morrison.

Stanley Leonard’s (BM ’54) new CD Collage highlights his percussion com-positions from 1967 to 2007. Stanley con-ducts the Louisiana

State University percussion group, Hamiruge, and performs Collage, a new work for solo timpani. The recording is distributed by C. Alan Publications (www.c-alanpublications.com). Stanley’s first CD, Canticle, is distrib-uted by Ludwig Music (www.ludwigmusic.com).

Brothers Paul Shewan (MM ’83, DMA ’04) and Stephen Shewan (DMA ’02) are fea-tured as conductor and composer,

respectively, on The Road Less Traveled: Byways of american Music (TROY 783). Several of Stephen’s choral and instrumental works are included, along with Randall Thompson’s Frostiana, Vaclav Nelhybel’s Psalm 150, and Te deum Laudamus by Ron Nelson (BM ’52, MM ’53, DMA ’57), who described Shewan’s recording as “jaw-dropping … the definitive performance of this piece. I could not be more pleased!”

Caleb Burhans (BM ’03), well-known in New York as a free-lance violinist, singer, composer, and arranger, sticks to violin in the duo

itsnotyouitsme, begun with guitarist Grey McMurray (BM ’02) when both were Eastman students. Itsnotyouitsme just released walled gardens (New Amsterdam 006). The New York Times pointed out the musical influences of minimalism and pop, adding

“Reasonable listeners could disagree whether this is a rock band or a chamber group.” (www.newamsterdamrecords.com)

Quartsemble: Tango is the first CD released by Quartsemble, com-posed of violinists Karine Stone (BM ’95, MM ’97) and

An-Chi Angel OuYang (MM ’95), violist Marc Anderson (BM ’04, MM ’06), cellist Diego Garcia, and double bassist Gaelen McCormick (BM ’92). For information, visit www.quartsemble.com.

Organist Mark Laubach (MM ’84) recently released Mosaics in Sound (Pro Organo 7210), a CD of music by American, English, and French compos-

ers recorded in 2006 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre, PA. The selections include In Memoriam Titanic by Joseph Bonnet, who founded the ESM organ department in 1921. Mosaics in Sound is available at www.zarex.com.

Prolific pianist Jane Solose (DMA ’91) recently released Variations: Three Centuries of Solo Keyboard Variations, on Eroica Classical

Recordings (www.eroica.com). The program consists of variations by Purcell, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Herz, and Liszt.

Do you have music or performances on a recent or forthcoming CD? Notes wants to know! Send a copy to Eastman Notes, Office of Communications, Eastman School of Music, 26 Gibbs Street, Rochester, NY 14604; or just alert us that it is available.

ALUMNI NOTES

Alumni on DVD

Performing the role of Tatiana, soprano Renée Fleming (MM ’83) gives a star turn in a beautiful and enthusiastically received Metropolitan Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Decca 10525-09). Renée produces some true diva moments in her Act I “Letter Scene”, and particu-larly in her final duet with bari-tone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who plays the opera’s title character.

Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey (MM ’01) starsin a more controver-sial Los Angeles Opera presentation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (EuroArts 2056258), staged by Tony Award-winning director John Doyle (Sweeney Todd). Playing the doomed prospector Jimmy McIntyre, Tony more than holds his own with Broadway scene-stealers Audra McDonald (Jenny) and

Patti LuPone (Mrs. Begbick), and holds the stage by himself in a riveting prison monologue.

Ever in the vanguard of alumni magazines, Eastman Notes is happy to begin spotlighting DVDs as well as CDs, with two recent opera releases featuring two prominent Eastman alumni. Both are live presentations from the first half of 2007, which earned much praise for their stars. Besides the main feature, each DVD offers a booklet and some special features.


Pamela Marshall (BM ’76) writes: “Classical music concerts and envi-ronmental causes don’t often cross paths in obvious ways. In my new, composition, The Future of Life for chorus, trombone, and piano, the chorus sings the message of Dr. Edward O. Wilson—the need to preserve the world’s biodiversity. I found deep inspiration in his book. He writes with passion and built-in poetry about a topic that needs to concern us all.” The Future of Life was first performed October 28, 2007, by the Master Singers in Lexington, MA; more information is available at www.spindrift.com.

Hollis Thoms’ (ESM PhD candidate ’77¬’79) one-act chamber opera Socrates was premiered on February 18, 2007 at St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD, conducted by Hollis’ daughter Sonja (Thomas) Winkler (BM ’03). Hollis was inspired to write the opera, based on five Platonic dialogues, after com-pleting the liberal arts degree (Great Books curriculum) at St. John’s. Hollis has written about a hundred works for a variety of ensembles, including works with his daughter as oboist and his son Jonas Thoms (BM ’06) as hornist.

1980sComposer Jeff Beal (BM ’85) has received an unprecedented five Emmy Award nominations in the past two years. He won his third Emmy for his dramatic underscore to the TNT anthology Nightmares and Dreamscapes episode “Battleground,”

starring William Hurt as a hired assas-sin stalked by little green army men. The hour-long episode had no dialogue, and Jeff’s orchestral score

was featured from start to finish. Jeff’s most recent CD, the soundtrack to Rome (Rykodisc), features the music he composed for the critically acclaimed HBO/BBC co-production. Jeff’s television scoring can be heard weekly on ABC’s Ugly Betty and USA’s Monk, and he has several feature films premiering in 2008, including Al Pacino’s documentary Salomaybe? and The Deal, a comedy starring William H. Macy and Meg Ryan.

Karen Becker (BM ’87) recently completed her third year as assistant

professor of piano at SUNY-Plattsburgh. Some highlights of the past year include a recital at the Aaron Copland School of Music, appearing as guest artist with the Biava Quartet on the Hill and Hollow Music Series in Saranac, NY, with the Biava Quartet, and a recital and master class at American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Tim Conner (BM ’85) gave the world premiere of a new Concerto for Trombone and Winds by promi-nent composer David Maslanka on October 28. The 40-minute work was made possible in part by the Abraham Frost Commission Series at the Frost School of Music, and a consortium of 12 music schools, including Eastman. Tim is professor of trombone at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and he continues to play principal trombone with the Florida Grand Opera.

Terry Farrow (MM ’85) has com-pleted residency and board certifica-tion in internal medicine at NYU Medical Center. He goes on to fel-lowship training in HIV Medicine at Harlem Hospital in New York City. Prior to attending medical school, he was a music director and pianist for Broadway and touring musicals and was organist/choir director for St. Luke’s Church, Forest Hills. He lives in New York City with his partner.

Soprano Renée Fleming (MM ’83) sang the world premiere of Le Temps l’Horloge, by the distinguished French composer Henri Dutilleux, with the Saito Kinen Orchestra con-ducted by Seiji Ozawa, on September 6 in Matsumoto, Japan. Renée also sang the first American performances in Boston and at Carnegie Hall with James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Earlier in the summer, she inaugurated the brand-new Grafenegg Music Festival, Austria, with a recital of favorite opera arias. (For more about Renée, see right.)

A staged reading for Roxane of Bergerac, a new musical by Dave Flippo (MM ’80), took place at the Theatre Build-ing Chicago on October 22. The musical is based on Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, telling the tale from Roxane’s point of view. Book and lyr-ics are by Marie Yuen. The music blends baroques and jazz styles, add-ing Spanish tango and flamenco.

28 Eastman Notes | Winter 200828 Eastman Notes | Winter 2008

1930sShirley Brockman

(September 2007)F. Lee Fairley

(BM ’39, MM ’41), May 2007Mary Kay Wood Haley

(BM ’38), July 2007Lillian Hangen

(x ’36), November 2007Harriet Hopeman

(x ’37), December 2007Beatrice Shelley

(BM ’36), December 2007Mildred Stalker

(BM ’34), December 2007Ann Stewart

(BM ’37), July 2007Dorothy Walker

(BM ’33), August 2007Ruth Wetzel

(x ’39), October 2007

1940sCalvert Bean

(BM ’49), November 2007Joseph Bein

(BM ’41, MM ’48, PhD ’70), October 2007

Thaddeus Biernat (BM ’49), May 2007

Stanley Green (BM ’49, MM ’50), November 2007

Lawrence Kinney (BM ’46), August 2007

Anthony Kooiker (MM ’44, PhD ’63), October 2007

Marion E. (Benedict) Miller (MM ’47), May 2007

Mac Morgan (BM ’40), June 2007

David Oppenheim (BM ’47), November 2007

Naomi Ornest Yokel (BM ’46), March 2007

Norman Rose (BM ’48), July 2007

Alice Stallworth (BM ’43), November 2007

Robert Waterstripe (BM ’49, MM ’50), September 2007

William Whybrew (BM ’43, MM ’47, PhD ’53), July 2007

1950sBruce Benward

(PhD ’51), September 2007Virginia Berger

(MA ’57), June 2007Robert Cunningham

(BM ’50), June 2007John Eargle

(BM ’53), May 2007George Eddinger

(BM ’51), August 2007Jerry Etheridge

(BM ’52, MM ’53), November 2007

Walter Green (BM ’51), December 2007

Anne Haynes (MM ’56), May 2007

Benjamin Husted (PhD ’55), May 2007

David Johnson (BM ’56), June 2007

Petter Juel-Larsen (DMA ’56), November 2007

J. Robert Kelly (MM ’52), July 2007

Louise Kingman (BM ’50, MM ’51), October 2007

Richard Lanshe (MA ’56, PhD ’70), May 2007

Richard Schuler (MA ’50), April 2007

Salvatore Silipigni (BM ’51), April 2007

Howard Small (BM ’54, MM ’61), July 2007

1960sMelvin Alford

(MM ’64), June 2007Margaret Donnelly

(MM ’64), December 2007S. Johnette Eakin-Schuller

(MM ’64), September 2007Theodore Herzel

(MM ’67), September 2007

1970sUlrich Bauman

(DMA ’74), December 2007Martha Herby

(MM ’76), October 2007Allie Jensen

(MM ’77), October 2007Kimberly Schmidt

(BM ’72, MM ’75), August 2007

Evelyn Thomas (MM ’70), December 2007

1980sRaymond Pickens

(BM ’85, MA ’98), August 2007

David Remington (MM ’81), June 2007

1990sEdward Mizma

(MM ’93), July 2007Maxwell Roach

(HNR ’90), August 2007

We know that timely report-ing of alumni deaths is important to our readers. At the same time, we must ensure that our reports are accurate. Therefore, we ask that friends and family send us either an obituary or a let-ter of confirmation in notifying us of someone’s death. Please write to Eastman Notes, Office of Communications, 26 Gibbs Street, Rochester, NY 14604.

In memoriam


Dave’s second musical, Amelia, tells the life and adventures of Amelia Earhart, blending jazz and show tune styles; it will have a reading at the Theatre Building Chicago on March 27. Anyone interested in either musi-cal can visit www.flippomusic.com.

Gregory Galligan (BM ’82) received the PhD in modern art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in September 2007. Gregory wrote his doctoral disserta-tion, The Cube in the Kaleidoscope, on the reception of French Cubism by American abstract painters during the interwar period. He is organizing a second exhibition of the drawings of the American Synchromist painter, Morgan Russell (1886-1953), for the Montclair Art Museum, where he is a consultant and contributing scholar for the Museum’s 2009-2010 exhibition with the Baltimore Museum of Art, Cezanne and American Modernism. Gregory is a contributing editor for Art Asia Pacific, and has been consult-

ing with Thailand university officials on the imminent founding of the nation’s first archives of modern Thai art.

Trombonist Antonio Garcia (MM ’85) was interviewed in the October 2007 International Musician about his recent book Cutting the Changes: Jazz Impro-visation via Key Centers, a guide for the teaching and learning of jazz impro-visation based on the key centers of classic tunes rather than chord symbols.

Karen Griebling’s (BM ’80) Suite for Horn and Piano was performed at the International Horn Society’s Conference at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, on July 11, and at the Mid-South Horn Conference in Kansas City, MO. It was premiered at the Southeast Horn Conference in Athens, GA, in March 2007. Karen’s Choral Fantasy Variations, commis-sioned by Hendrix College, was pre-miered by members of the Hendrix College Chamber Chorale under the direction of Dr. Nancy Fleming at

the Wind-Song Center in Little Rock, AR, on October 26. Karen is the pro-ducer, conductor, and viola soloist on Alan Hovhaness: Music for Horn, Voice, and Strings (Centaur 2872), that features the Hendrix College Chamber Orchestra with Robin Dauer, horn, and Suzanne Banister, soprano. Karen is president of The Arkansas Viola Society, a new chapter of the American Viola Society. She will host the first conference of ARVIOLAS February 2-4 at Hendrix College in Conway, AR, where she is chair of the music department, teaches viola and composition, and conducts the college orchestra.

Cory Hall (MM ’88) taught piano for three years in Kassel, Germany, subsequently earning an MM in musicology and DMA in piano from the University of Kansas as a gradu-ate honors fellow. He remains busy teaching humanities at St. Petersburg College, piano at Eckerd College, and serving as organist at Anona United Methodist Church,

all in the Tampa Bay area. Cory is writing a book titled Breaking the Bach Tempo Code: Tempo and Duration in the Music of J.S. Bach.

Mary Jo Heath (PhD ’88) is in her second season as Senior Radio Producer at the Metropolitan Opera, leading the team that produces the revamped Saturday broadcasts heard live by 11 million people worldwide each week ,as well as the live broad-casts heard three nights per week on the Met Opera Radio Channel on the Sirius Satellite network during the Met season. She is often heard on the broadcasts, interviewing artists or hosting the opera quiz. This year she will host live discussions with the casts of Die Zauberflöte and Peter Grimes in the Metropolitan Opera Guild lecture series.

Ann Margaret Lamoureux (BM ’81) continues her piano teaching at the JPB Piano Studios in Swansea, MA, and in her hometown of Dartmouth, MA. She has been minister of music


Milan Yancich, who was a lec-turer in horn at the Eastman School and a horn player in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for many years, died on August 7, 2007, in Lake Placid, NY. Yancich was 86 years old.

Milan Yancich received a bach-elor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree from Northwestern University, and played principal positions in the Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra (1946–51), Chicago Symphony (1948–51), and

Cleveland Orchestra (1951–52) before coming to Rochester. He played in the Rochester Phil-harmonic Orchestra from 1953 to 1997, and taught at the Eastman School from 1957 until 1992.

Many of Milan Yancich’s students went on to successful careers as performers, teachers, and administrators; his son Paul is principal timpanist of the Cleveland Orchestra, and his son Mark is timpanist of the Atlanta Symphony. Yancich is also sur-vived by another son, Milan; a daughter, Nicki Politi; and his wife, Pauline White Yancich.

Yancich was a notable author and editor of music and meth-ods for the horn, including Fifteen Solos for French Horn and Piano, Method for French Horn Playing, and Practical Guide

to French Horn Playing, all published by the company he founded, Wind Music, Inc. In 1996 he published an Orchestra Musician’s Odyssey: a View from the Rear, an account of his life as an orchestral musician and his “insider’s” reminiscences of such notable musicians as Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, and Howard Hanson.

In June 1997, Milan Yancich, along with another longtime Eastman horn teacher and RPO musician, Morris Secon, received the International Horn Society’s Punto Award, commemorating their long and outstanding careers. In remembering Yancich, Secon said, “He was such a great low horn player; when he turned loose, the floor resonated. He was a remarkable technician, and as nice as he was good.”

Milan Yancich

ALUMNI NOTES

Milan Yancich in performance with the RPO in the 1970s.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHAW FESTIVAL30 Eastman Notes | Winter 2008

ALUMNI NOTES

at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in South Dartmouth since 1995. Ann’s students perform regularly in various venues in southeastern Massachusetts. In her free time, Ann is a volunteer for Catholic Family Life Insurance, and with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra.

Jacqueline LeClair (BM ’88) was the soloist with the New Millennium Ensemble in the world premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s oboe concertino Iridule at New York’s Symphony Space on September 20. Also per-forming were two other ESM alumni: Margaret Kampmeier, piano (BM ’85), and Greg Hesselink, cello (BM ’90). Part of the funding for Iridule (which is dedicated to Jacquie and New Millennium) came from the Hanson Institute.

David Moore (BM ’86) announces that “The University of Tulsa Orchestra, directed by [sic!] Richard Wagner, gave the first performance of my Seminole Autumn Rondo on November 12, in its Oklahoma Centennial Concert. The piece was written as part of the University’s celebration of Oklahoma’s centennial (1907¬2007). I’m a native Oklahoman, and lived as a child on a farm near Seminole, in the south central part of the state. My wife, Susan Goldman-Moore (BA ’71), and I continue to teach at the University of Tulsa School of Music. We’re very proud of our daughter, Hannah, who is 13 and participates in community theatre productions.”

Stephen Rush (MM ’83, DMA ’85) will premiere his fourth opera, Two Candles Burning, in the spring of 2008. It is a chamber opera scored for four soloists and string quartet, with a libretto by his frequent collab-orator, Michael Rodemer (librettist for Stephen’s vidGod and ¡¡Stop Blaming Columbus!!). Steve’s book on contem-porary liturgy, Better Get It In Your Soul (with Rev. Reid Hamilton), will be released by Church Publishing in 2008. Steve appeared with perfor-mance artists last winter at the Kitchen and the Joyce Theatre¬Soho, playing laptop and synthesizer. He presented his Six Treatments for Laptop and Carillon at Eastman’s Computer Music Festival, and recently completed two tours with his New York-based trio Yuganaut. Steve’s Clarinet Concerto (with

Richard Stolzman as soloist) was released on MMC Recordings.

Gene Scheer (BM ’81, MM ’82), whose Eastman degrees were in voice, has become one of the most called-upon writers by American composers of vocal music. Gene’s operatic adaptation of Melville’s Moby Dick, with music by Jake Heggie, was announced for the Dallas Opera’s 2009¬2010 season, with Ben Heppner singing the role of Captain Ahab.

Paul Sportelli (BM ’83) co-wrote the new musical Tristan (based on a short story by Thomas Mann), which was premiered last summer at Canada’s Shaw Festival, and ran from July 12 through October 6; he was also music director for The Shaw’s presentation of Jerry Herman’s Mack and Mabel. Paul is entering his 10th year as The Shaw’s music direc-tor; in 2008 he’ll conduct Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music and Leonard Bernstein’s Wonderful Town.

The Refuge, a new opera with libretto by Leah Lax and music by Christopher Theofanidis (MM ’92), had its premiere at Houston Grand Opera in November. The opera tells the stories from Houston’s African, Central American, Indian, Mexican, Pakistani, Soviet-era Jewish, and Vietnamese immigrant communities, and featured performers from those communities.

Terry A. Yount (DMA ’80) and Laura Angus Yount (MM ’75) continue to enjoy the sun and

warmth of Orlando, FL. Terry is teaching organ, piano, and coursework as adjunct professor at the University of Central Florida, Rollins College, and St. Andrew’s Music Academy. Laura is an adjunct professor of voice at the Univer- sity of Central Florida and the administrative assistant to the assistant vice president for adult studies at Belhaven College. Both Terry and Laura maintain private music studios as well.

1990sMatthew Bribitzer-Stull (MA ’97, PhD ’01) was given the Emerging Scholar Award by the Society for Music Theory, recognizing a paper he published in Music Theory Spectrum in 2006. Matthew has also recently had papers accepted by Music Analysis, Journal of Music Theory, Intégral, and the Journal of Schenkerian Studies. Matthew’s com-pilation of essays, Richard Wagner for the New Millennium: Studies in Music and Culture, co-edited with Gottfried Wagner (great-grandson of the com-poser) and Alex Lubet, was pub-lished by Palgrave in 2007. Matthew and his husband, Jason Bribitzer-Stull (UR MBA ’97), continue to enjoy living together in Minneapolis.

Carlos Carillo (BM ’94) was recently named conductor of the Wabash Valley (IN) Youth Symphony, and made his debut with them on November 9, leading works of Mendelssohn and Beethoven. Carlos teaches composi-tion and theory at DePauw University; a work of his for the American Composers Orchestra was premiered in January 2005 at Carnegie Hall.

In August 2007, Jason Charneski (BM ’96, organ), director of music and the arts at Center Church in Hartford, CT, led the church’s choir and friends on a tour of places in England where the church’s founding ministers, Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone, served prior to their move to New England and founding of Center Church 375 years ago. The choir sang weekend services in Leicester and Chelmsford cathedrals and concerts in All Saint’s Parish Church, Hertford, and the United Reformed Church Chapel in Little Baddow. In October 2007, Jason pre-sented a workshop, “Accessible

Organ Music for the Church Year,” to a gathering of the United Church of Christ Musicians Association. Jason is chair of the selection com-mittee for the Charlotte Hoyt Bagnall Scholarship for Church Musicians, and is an accompanist and organist for CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists).

Todd Coleman (MM ’99, DMA ’02) has joined the faculty of Elon University in North Carolina to establish a new bachelor of science degree program in music technology. Prior to coming to Elon, he taught electronic music, composition, and transmedia art for four years at Grinnell College. Coleman teaches courses in composition, electronic music, critical listening, technology in the arts, and new media, and also directs the newly created Electronic Ensemble. His new flute concerto, commissioned by the Barlow Endowment, was premiered in March 2007 by flutist April Clayton and will be commercially released on CD in 2008 by Tantara Records. A new work for wind ensemble, commissioned by a consortium of 10 universities will be premiered during the 2007¬2008 season throughout the country. For more information, visit www.toddcoleman.net.

Greg Falkenstein (BM ’94) writes: “I wanted to share some exciting pro-fessional news. After eight seasons as a section violist in the Phoenix Symphony, I won the orchestra’s recent national audition for assistant principal viola.”

Nan Gullo Richmond (DMA ’92) won the Eastman Community Music School’s Jack L. Frank Award for Excellence in Teaching. In addi-tion to her studio teaching, Nan also directs two harp choirs, and is the coordinator and director of the ECMS Harp Workshop, held each summer at Eastman.

Kelly Hall-Tompkins (BM ’93) announces the creation of her new website, www.kellyhall-tompkins.com.

“For those of you who are familiar with my previous website, everything has been redesigned, revamped and updated with many exciting new projects including Music Kitchen, my new concertmaster and soloist position with the Chamber Orchestra of New York (a brand new orchestra

Paul Sportelli: Directing Night Music and matinées for Canada’s Shaw Festival.


debuting in Zankel Hall this season), and my new CD, In My Own Voice. There are more than 10 minutes of preview tracks from the disc avail-able for listening on my discography page! And if you feel so inclined, please sign my guestbook!”

Erin Hannigan (MM ’96) was appointed principal oboe of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in November. Erin was the first musi-cian appointment of new DSO music director Jaap van Zweden, who calls her “a pure diamond.” Erin joined the DSO in 2001 as second oboe, and was interim principal oboe since September 2006.

In May 2007, Gregory Jones (DMA ’92), professor of music at Truman State University, was a featured performer at the first-ever China Trumpet Guild Conference, held in Beijing. Gregory presented master classes and performances at this prestigious event, and in several other Chinese cities. In July 2007, Gregory traveled to the Greek island of Corfu to perform and teach as part of the Fifth Ionian Academy of Music, joining principal brass players from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Mnozil Brass, trombon-ist Christian Lindberg, and other professionals from Europe to help students from around the world improve their musical skills.

John Kaefer (BM ’99) is busy with various projects for film, television, and the concert stage. Recent com-missions include REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE for The Haddonfield Symphony and Silhouettes for Les Amis Musicalles, a Los Angeles- based trio. He is writing a new work for organists Paul Jacobs and Andrew Henderson. Recent film and television projects include Mama’s Boy (Warner Brothers feature film starring Diane

Keaton and Jon Heder), Room Service (short film starring Howie Mandel), To Kill A Bore (shown at the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival), They Say It’s Wonderful (winner, Best Short Film, Long Island International Film Expo 2006), and Dance School (a three-part documentary about the Juilliard dance program). Visit www.composerjohn.com for more information and audio samples.

Robert Lehmann (MM ’92) was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor at the University of Southern Maine School of Music, where he is director of strings and orchestral activities. He is looking forward to an exciting second season as music director of the Portland Chamber Orchestra as well as the 60th anniversary season of the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra, which he also conducts. He will guest conduct the Portland Symphony again this fall, after two successful guest appearances last season.

Marc C. Thayer (BM ’93, MM ’95) was a performer and faculty member at the Iraqi Summer Performing Arts Academy in July 2007. The festival took place in Erbil in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, organized by American Voices and sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the Kurdish Ministry of Culture. Three orchestras participated: the Iraqi National Symphony from Baghdad, and string orchestras from Erbil and Suleimanya. There were dance, jazz, and children’s theater components with 10 American faculty members and over 300 Iraqi artists involved. The orchestras consisted of Kurds, Arabs, Shia, Sunni, and Christian musicians with a Jewish conductor, David Handel. In the final concert all of the orchestras were combined into one large Unity Orchestra and performed with each of the conduc-tors involved in the new Kurdish Ministry of Culture Auditorium. The concerts were broadcast live throughout Iraq. “It was certainly one of the best experiences of my life,” says Marc; “the people we worked with were really wonderful, and I look forward to going back. John Ferguson, Director of American Voices, and I are working on a return trip later this year to do a teacher training workshop for a couple of weeks along with some perfor-mances with musicians there.

Eastman graduates who make it to Hollywood are generally there to write or perform movie soundtracks, but we’ve produced at least one movie star of sorts. Irene Manning (1912–2004) graduated in 1932 with an Eastman degree in voice as Inez Harvuot, and took her singing and acting talent and glamor-

ous looks to California. She sang in several stage produc-tions, getting her big break (and her first screen kiss) with Gene Autry in The Old Corral (1932), using the nom du cinéma Hope Manning. As Irene Manning, she made only 12 movies in the ‘30s and ‘40s, but they included some high-

profile assignments: sing-ing opposite James Cagney in Yankee doodle dandy (1942) and Dennis Morgan in The desert Song (1943), and acting sultry with Humphrey Bogart as the doomed heroine in the

hard-boiled gangster drama The Big Shot (1942), whose trailer described her as “dynamite wrapped in Sable!”

According to Paul Roxin (author of One Foot on the Ground: a Pilot’s Memories of aviators and aviation and husband of Beatrice Roxin BM ’48—and a friend of Irene Manning’s late in her life), Irene was the last singer to perform with Glenn Miller, recording several American pop songs in German with him just before his disappearance over the English Channel in December 1942. In the 1950s Irene appeared on TV in England and America, and later on stage in revivals of Pal Joey, Mame, and The King and I. She spent her retirement teaching singing and acting in California—and she remains the only Eastman grad ever to take a bullet for Bogie.

Gregory Jones and Christian Lindberg in Corfu, Greece.

A dynamite diva

ALUMNI NOTES

And we hope to repeat the Academy next summer.”

Jason van Eyk (MM ’98) joined the University of Toronto on November 26 as the first director of ArtsZone. This office will connect arts activity across all three UT campuses to drive interdisciplinary activity, student engagement, and community net-works. Jason was the Ontario Regional Director for the Canadian Music Center—a national music informa-tion centre dedicated to collecting, distributing, and promoting the work of Canadian composers.

Caroline Whiddon (BM ’92) writes: “Eastman faculty member and alum-nus Phillip Ying was the featured soloist during the Vermont Youth Orchestra’s summer concert tour of China. Phillip was invited to perform with the orchestra by their executive director. The orchestra gave perfor-mances in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Hong Kong. Phillip performed the Romance in F major, Op. 85 by Bruch, followed by Bloch’s Suite hébraïque. Oh—and I should men-tion—these were Phillip’s first per-formances in China, and the very first concert we played was in Beijing

… on Phillip’s birthday. What a way to celebrate! Of course, there was a beautiful cake shared after the con-cert in his honor.”

2000sJulie Barnes Spring (BM ’06) has been appointed principal harp of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra—the

first principal harp position in a major orchestra that has opened in more than six years. Julie will play the spring 2008 season as needed and formally join the TSO in fall 2008.

Meghann F. Eckenhoff (BM ’01) has been selected as one of 10 fellows in The Kennedy Center Institute for Arts Management Fellowship Program at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the class of 2008.

Juliet Grabowski (BM ’06) currently works at the Boston-based marketing firm Digitas, where she is a senior analyst in the company’s strategy and analysis group. In her free time she plays the koto, a 13-string zither from Japan.

Danan Healy (MM ’00) recently gave three Christmas concerts in upstate New York in support of the release of her album Christmas Time Rocks, which includes two original songs along with holiday standards. More information at www.dananhealy.com.

Mark Houghton (BM ’02), principal hornist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 2005, was profiled in a November 2007 issue of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, including a mention of his “Mahler Moment”: playing the solos in the composer’s Fifth Symphony during the orches-tra’s Mahler Festival in August.

Violinist Elana Klotz (BM ’06) is currently teaching at the Hochstein School of Music in Canandaigua,

Showing OffThere’s much more to Eastman than Notes! Each month, the “Eastman Showcase” section of our website singles out an Eastman student or alumnus who is taking music further. Recent showcases have included:

Chris Martin• (BM ’97) and other ESM grads bring brazen talent to the Chicago Symphony’s fabled brass sectionAn Eastman scholar in Bologna, Italy: musicology • professor Patrick MaceyThe • Ying Quartet plays a little Stephen Sondheim music

The site is updated and archived regularly, so keep visiting www.esm.rochester.edu/experience/showcase.php. And, of course, keep reading Notes!

Fifth House Ensemble with Melissa Ngan Snoza (BM ’02), (front center, in white) and Eric Snoza (BM ’01, behind Melissa, with beard).

Chris Martin

Ying Quartet

32 Eastman Notes | Winter 2008 PHOTOGRAPH BY TODD ROSENBERG (CHRIS MARTIN)


as well as in the Catholic school system of Rochester. This past summer, Elana and her fiance, Tim, purchased a home in Brighton. Coincidentally, the house was for-merly owned by the late Eastman composition professor Wayne Barlow.

Nathanael May (MM ’01) announces that the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival, which he founded in 2005, has changed its name to the sound-SCAPE new music festival and is expanding its size and scope. The festival facilitates the exchange of new music, ideas, and culture among musicians of tomorrow’s generations. Eastman involvement in sound-SCAPE includes musicology profes-sor Martin Scherzinger and pianist Thomas Rosenkranz (DMA ’06).

J. Gregory Miller (BM ’06) was appointed third horn of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra.

Melissa Ngan Snoza (BM ’02) is the flutist and executive director for Fifth House Ensemble, which has presented performances and educational concerts in the Chicago area since 2005. The group recently launched its first subscription series at the Joy Faith Knapp Music Center in Chicago. Information on more recent concerts and events is avail-able at www.fifth-house.com. (See photo on p. 32.)

Colleen Phillips McAtee and her husband, Nate, announce the birth of their first son, Connor Aidan, on May 25, 2007. Colleen is taking a leave of absence from her job as a high school orchestra director to care for the new baby. They reside in Northern Virginia.

Megan Sesma (BM ’02, UR BA ’02) was appointed as instructor of harp at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, and as adjunct instructor of harp at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT.

Leah M. Tomasino (BM ’01) is in her sixth year as the Hauppauge High School orchestra director on Long Island. She completed her master of arts from Stony Brook University and a master of science in educational administration from the College of St. Rose. She pre-sented a workshop at the New York State Reading Association Conference, and is currently in her second year as the New York American String Teachers Association Secretary. Leah has published articles in The School Music News and The NYASTA Bridge, and is active in NY music organizations such as SCMEA, NYSSMA, and ASTA, and continues to play in orchestras in the community.

Colin Tribby (MM ’06) was recently appointed adjunct instructor of percussion at Davidson College in Davidson, NC. He was commis-sioned by choreographer Dianne Markham to compose music for her new work, Motorbase, which was premiered at the North Carolina School of the Arts in November. The piece utilizes rhythms found in both natural and man-made motors. Colin was a featured performer with the Open Dream Ensemble at the 2007 PAE (Performing Arts Exchange) in Louisville, KY.

Zachary Wadsworth (BM ’05) won the first prize of $3,500 in the ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition in November, Zachary has been commissioned to write a song cycle for voice and piano, to be published by E C. Schirmer and to be performed in three major U.S. cities.

Janet Wightman (BM ’05) is going back to the future, musically speak-ing. She recently started graduate studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where she is studying medieval and renaissance harp and vielle with a side concentration in Renaissance dance. Janet still plays some modern and baroque oboe, but is enjoying the drastic switch of instruments and repertoire.

Colleen Phillips McAtee and Connor Aidan McAtee.

Save the date and make your plans to return to Rochester.

For the entire Eastman community.

www.esm.rochester.edu/eastmanweekend

M E L I O R AW E E K E N D

E A S T M A N W E E K E N D

OCTOBER 16 — 19 , 2008

W08_notes ad.indd 1 2/12/08 9:09:16 A


Sylvie Beaudette, assistant professor of chamber music and accompanying, wore a somewhat different hat last fall, when she was French-language coach for the Houston Grand Opera’s production of Donizetti’s La Fille du regiment (The Daughter of the Regiment). Chorus master for this production was Richard Bado (MM ’83).

The Kopelman Quartet (led by Professor of Violin Mikhail Kopelman) received rave reviews for its performances in the West Cork (Ireland) Chamber Music Festival last summer, performing Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A Minor and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet with pianist Elisabeth Leonskaya, as well as Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet, in which, “Intense vibratos, a vast dynamic range and an instinctive sense of time and phrasing made every last bar drip with high drama.”

Professor of Musicology Kim Kowalke enjoyed a run on Broadway this spring. His 1997 book Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, edited with the late Lys Symonette, was turned into the musical LoveMusik by prizewinning playwright Alfred Uhry and director Harold Prince. The show, starring Michael Cerveris as Weill and Donna Murphy as Lenya, opened in May at the Biltmore Theatre. The show’s run was brief, but a recording of the score is avail-able on the Ghostlight label.

Ralph Locke, professor of musicology, was honored again in the 2007 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards for excellence in writing about music. This time Ralph won for his article “Liszt on the Artist in Society,” a chapter in

the book Liszt and His World (Oxford University Press).

Professor of Piano Rebecca Penneys has announced “a lot of great things happening all at once!” in fall 2007. Rebecca played and taught in Chile and Argentina in October. This summer she will celebrate her 30th consecutive season as a faculty mem-ber at Chautauqua, with an event in the Amphitheater. Rebecca adds that in 2008 Chautauqua will inaugurate its first season as an all-Steinway Festival, and will open a renovated piano studio and a new 250-seat hall. The Chautauqua Piano Competition will launch a first prize of $7500, named the Rebecca Penneys Prize.

Marie Rolf, professor of theory and dean of graduate studies, published her article “Symbolism as Compositional Agent in Act IV, Scene 4 of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande” in Berlioz and Debussy: Sources, Contexts, and Legacies: Essays in Honor of Francois Lesure, edited by Barbara L. Kelly and Kerry Murphy and published last fall by Ashgate Press. Marie’s tribute to Alfred Mann is on p. 16.

Assistant Professor of Musicology Martin Scherzinger published

“Remarks on a Sketch of György Ligeti: A Case of African Pianism” (on Ligeti’s Étude no. 12, “Entrelacs”) in the March 2007 Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung.

Professor Emerita Kerala Snyder’s classic biographical study Dieterich Buxtehude: Organist in Lübeck was re-issued in summer 2007 by the University of Rochester Press to great acclaim and is in its second printing. The new edition of this book not only includes a great deal of new historical and research mate-rial, but also a CD of Buxtehude’s organ music by Professor Hans Davidsson (who is busily recording all of it—see “Faculty on CD”, p. 35). Kerala spoke on Buxtehude at the 2007 EROI Festival, is scheduled for EROI 2008, and presented at Eastman’s Tribute to Alfred Mann in November 2007.

ON THE WEB For regular updates on Eastman faculty members’ concerts. lectures, publications, and other activities, visit www.esm.rochester.edu/faculty.

Composers taking flightWhether their music was played outside or danced to inside, the sec-ond half of 2007 was a banner time for Eastman composers. Robert Morris’ 2005 piece Oracle was played by Ossia at Rochester’s George Eastman House, or rather outside of it, on September 13. Oracle is one of a series of works by Bob designed for performance in natural settings.

Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez won the 2007 Barlow Prize for Composition, awarded by Brigham Young Uni-versity. Carlos will write a new work for percussion ensemble to be premiered in Toronto, Stockholm, and New York City. He was also composer-in-residence at the Morelia International New Music Festival in Mexico in June, and at the Seattle SLAM Festival from September 27-29.

Choreographer Garth Fagan’s EDGE/JOY was a great success at its “inaugural preview” in Rochester (during UR Meliora Weekend) and at its formal premiere at New York City’s Joyce Theatre in November. Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon’s Candleabra, Jacaras, and Paramo, per-formed live by an Eastman School ensemble led by doctoral con-ducting student Reuben Blundell, formed the “soundtrack.”

Allan Schindler was awarded a $10,000 commission from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, for a work for marimba and eight-channel live audio processing. The work, tentatively titled Take Flight in celebration of the centenary of aeronautical navigation, will be premiered and recorded by marimbist Nathaniel Bartlett (BM ’00).

David Liptak’s Melissa’s Quilt, for marimba and viola, was per-formed at New York’s Symphony Space in October, and his Trio for Viola, Percussion, and Piano was performed at Eastman in November, featuring violist George Taylor.

On May 9, ESM celebrated the 80th birthday of Verne Reynolds with a substantial program of his chamber music performed by faculty members. In December, Joseph Schwantner returned to Eastman to hear the Wind Ensemble perform Recoil (2005) and the Philharmonia Angelfire (commissioned by the Hanson Institute) with Professor of Violin Charles Castleman as soloist.

FACULTY NOTES

Robert Morris


FACULTY NOTES

Eastman faculty on CD

Paul O’Dette, director of Eastman’s early music program, recently received acclaim for recordings as a lutenist and as a conductor. His first installment of lute works by J. S. Bach (Harmonia Mundi HMU 907438) includes the Suite in G Minor BWV 995, Partita in E, BWV 1006a, and a transcription of the Solo Violin Sonata in G Minor, BWV 1001. Paul, with fellow conductor Stephen Stubbs, leads the Boston Early Music Festival in the first commercial recording of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Thésée (cpo 777240), which was recently nominated for a Grammy as “Best Opera Recording.” ClassicsToday.com noted, “Thésée is a museum piece, but here it is led, played, and sung with such verve that it instantly brings to life the period in which it was born.”

Soprano and early-music virtuoso Julianne Baird is a frequent and popular voice instruc-tor during Eastman’s summer sessions. The latest in her long

list of recordings, Flaming Rose (Chaconne CHAN0743), is actually a recording of Handel’s Nine German arias, backed by the ensemble Tempesta di Mare, who begin and end the CD with two of Handel’s Trio Sonatas.

Stephen Hartke’s opera The Greater Good, or The Passion of Boule de Suif, commissioned by Eastman’s Hanson Institute, is now avail-able in an “original cast

recording” from the summer 2006 premiere production at Glimmerglass Opera (Naxos 8669014). Both production and recording of this adaptation of a Guy de Maupassant short story

have received strong reviews; see the Winter 2007 Notes for details. The Greater Good was on The New York Times’ “Best Classical Recording” list for 2007.

Violist and longtime Eastman professor John Graham recently released a fourth CD to join the others in his Music for the Viola series. John is joined

by another Eastman favorite, pianist Barry Snyder, in cornerstones of the viola repertory: the two Brahms sonatas Op. 120 (originally for clarinet), and the Sonata Op. 11, No. 4 by Paul Hindemith. For information on this CD and John’s earlier CDs of 20th-century viola music, visit www.grahamviola.com.

The versatile Ying Quartet follows its recent Grammy-nominated set of Tchaikovsky quartets with something com-pletely different: dim

Sum (Telarc 80690). As the title suggests, this is an appetizing selection of bite-sized musi-cal morsels in the form of short works by living Chinese-American composers blend-ing traditional Chinese and Western classical sounds, including Chou Wen-chung (Larghetto Nostalgico and Leggierezza), Tan Dun (drum and Gong, Cloudiness, Red Sona), and Bright Sheng (Silent Temple II and IV).

In our last issue, we mentioned the first vol-ume of a series of the organ music of Dieterich Buxtehude, performed by Eastman professor Hans Davidsson on a

mean-tone tuned organ in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volume 2, titled The Bach Perspective, has just been released on the Loft label (71117). The web-site Classical Lost and Found reports that Hans uses “every trick at his disposal to come up with

some of the most colorful Baroque music that ever emanated from an organ pipe,” and calls the Gothenburg organ “a fabulous sounding piece of work.”

Naxos has produced a new CD of another Eastman-related American opera: Merry Mount, by longtime director of the School Howard Hanson (Naxos

8669012), in a performance taped in 1996 under conductor Gerard Schwarz, a champion of Hanson’s orchestral works. Premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1934 but seldom performed since, Merry Mount, according to Musicweb International’s Rob Barnett, offers Hanson’s “lyrical impulse at full stretch … this red-blooded recording should win the work new admirers.”

If you want to hear Brahms’ Op. 120 sonatas in their original form by an Eastman artist, we have a CD for you: Harmonia Mundi 907430, with clarinetist Jon

Manasse joined by a Rochester favorite, pianist Jon Nakamatsu. James Oestrich’s recent review in The New York Times praised Jon M’s “deft technique, exquisite sensitivity, and smooth, flowing tone,” and described Jon N’s accompani-ment as “meltingly beautiful.”



Only 37 students won the presti-gious Marshall Scholarship in 2007, and one of them was an Eastman student: senior Rachel Kincaid, who is also the first University of Rochester student to receive this honor since 1988. A trumpet player and composer, Rachel impressed the Marshall Scholarship judges not only with her musical abilities, but also with her ideas for writing and performing music that might connect audiences to different cul-tures, and also rouse its listeners to political and social action. Marshall Scholarships, established in 1953 by the British Parliament as a thank-you for American assistance after World War II under the Marshall Plan, award American undergraduates and recent college graduates with two years of study at any university in the United Kingdom. In her first year, Rachel will study for a master’s degree in trumpet performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester; and in the following year will begin work on a second master’s degree in composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow.

Two students of W. Peter Kurau entered the academic world in fall

2007: DMA student Chris Naugle was appointed instructor of horn at Nazareth College (Rochester); and Katie Carothers McBain (MM ’00, currently a DMA student) was named visiting instructor of horn at Eastern Illinois University.

Last summer, two Eastman students of Bonita Boyd took first prizes in the National Flute Association’s two largest competitions. This is the first time that students from one music school have won both prizes. Doctoral student Hue Sung Choe won first prize ($5,000 and an appearance at the 2008 NFA Convention) in the Young Artist Competition, and senior Heather Zininger took top honors in the Orchestral Excerpt Competition. The competitions took place in August, during the 2007 NFA Convention in Albuquerque, NM.

“Eastman BroadBand,” an initiative by composition professors Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, is bringing contemporary music, and many Eastman student musicians, into the international limelight. In September, tenor Scott Perkins, guitarist Dieter Hennings, and flutist Dierdre

Huckabay, performed in Mexico, in repertoire that ranged from John Dowland songs to new works by Sanchez-Gutierrez and recent alum Jacob Bancks (MM ’06). In December, Eastman BroadBand traveled to Festival Spaziomusica in Cagliari, Sardinia, with a group performing two chamber operas including Comala by Zohn-Muldoon.

Besides Huckabay and Hennings, the band included clarinetist Andrew Brown, trombonist Peter Fanelli, percussionists John Hain and Bajinder Sekohn, harpist Lucy Haslar, violinist Hanna Hurwitz, saxophonist Barbara Larson, cellist Florent Renard-Payen, and pianist Arthur Williford.

Notes is happy to trumpet Rachel Kincaid’s achievement as a Marshall Scholar.

This fall, members of Eastman BroadBand brought contemporary music, ranging from solo songs to chamber opera, to Mexico’s Morelia Festival and Italy’s Festival Spaziomusica.


STUDENT NOTES

Rememberwhatwhat

Rememberwhat

Remember’

Remember’

Remembers importants important’s important’

UnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledA R T I S T R Y

S C H O L A R S H I P

L E A D E R S H I P

C O M M U N I T Y Unparalleled Education

Support the future of music atwww.rochester.edu/annualfunds (800) 598-1330

UnparalleledUnparalleledUnparalleledAF_Ad_Eastman.indd 1 2/6/08 11:32:28 PM

“Such harmony is in immortal souls”If one Eastman student performs with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, it’s news; 16 of them at once is really news. And 16 Eastman voice students joined the RPO and conductor Christopher Seaman on October 5 for a performance of RVW’s Serenade to Music. The unusual work, a setting of lines from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, is written for 16 vocal soloists. To paraphrase the Bard a bit, “Soft stillness and the

night became the touches of sweet harmony” in this ravishing work, which showcased Eastman sopranos Kathryn Blomshield, Julia Cramer, Sarah Sensenig, and Erica Washburn; altos Katherine Hannigan, Korin Kormick, Katherine Maroney, and Julia Teitel; tenors Jack Beetle, Brian Burdick, Vernon DiCarlo, and Kyle Knapp; and baritones Andrew Bawden, Evan Jones, Jonathan Michie, and Colin Porter.

26 Gibbs StreetRochester, NY 14604-2599

NON-PROFITORGANIZATION

U.S. POSTAGEPAID

PERMIT NO. 780ROCHESTER, NY

Notes Winter 2008

Documents

Transcript of Notes Winter 2008